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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/dogaressasofveni01stal 



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DOGARESSA TEODORA SELVO 

(as Ckopatra with Venetian Zilve). 
PARIS BORDONE. 



THE POGARESSAS 
OF VENICE 

frHs irivss of ths dogssj 



BY EDGCUMBE STALEY 

AUTHOR OF "the TRAGEDIES OF THE MEDICI " ETC. 



ILL USTEA TED 




THE DOGARESSA 



NEW YORK 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 









TO THE MEMORY OF MY 
MOTHER 

FIXETTA STALEY 



/ in 



PREFACE ^ 

The Story of the Dogaressas of Venice, — the Wives 
of the Doges, — has not hitherto been told in EngHsh ; 
but when my many appreciative readers have finished 
this volume, I am confident they will agree with me 
that there is much that is very interesting and unique 
in my narrative. 

The influence of good women upon the well-being 
of Society is undeniable : that eloquent French mot: — 
*' Cherchez la Femme,'" has a subtle and impressive 
meaning. In the election of a Doge of t]ie Most 
Serene Republic of Venice the personality of his 
spouse had often as not considerable weight in the 
decision of the Lords of the Council. My long list 
of the Ducal wearers of the lesser Corno contains the 
name of not one who failed to play her magnificent 
role with infinite credit to herself and with con- 
spicuous benefit to the State. 

In the compilation of my '' Libro d'Oro delle 
Dogaresse di Venezia,'' I have found ''La Storia di 
Venezia'' and ''La Dogaressa di Venezia'' — the 
remarkably able works of Signore Pompeo Giovanni 
Molmenti, — of the greatest service, and I now beg 
to offer that erudite writer, if he is still alive, my 
heartiest acknowledgments. Mr W. C. Hazlett's 
"Venetian Republic," — out and away the best Eng- 
lish history of Venice, — has been invaluable. 

The " Roll " of the Most Serene Dogaressas is 
unique, — such a complete list has never been 
published, — it will therefore be exceedingly useful 
to students of history and lovers of romance. 



Preface 

With respect to illustrations it will be at once 
remarked how few portraits of Dogaressas I offer. 
The fact is that Venetian painters, great or small, 
painted fewer than a dozen of the noble First Ladies 
of Venice. This is perhaps what might have been 
expected. Venetian painters excelled all others in 
the delineation of youthful female beauty, — they were 
the first to paint " Veyius Calva,'' — but the middle- 
aged and the aged did not appeal to them. Xo, the 
Dogaressas have nothing for which to thank painters, 
sculptors, or engravers : such artists were directly 
under the patronage of the Doges not of their 
Consorts. 

Women of every age and clime care very little 
about the Fine i\rts, so called, they are themselves 
the finest of the Fine Arts, and their sympathy goes 
out rather to the artistic Crafts, in search of objects 
to add. if may be, to their own charms and attractive- 
ness. In Venice the '' Fragilie,'' or Trade-Guilds, 
were directly under the patronage of the Dogaressas, 
and we shall find their personal attributes in the 
beautiful and frao^ile o-lass of ]\Iurano, and the delicate 
and chaste point-lace of Burano, in the lovely and 
costly ornaments of the goldsmiths, in the superb 
brocades of silk and velvet and the splendid tissues 
of ofold and silver of the costumiers, and in the end- 
less fascinating adjuncts of the toilet and the table. 

]\Iany of my illustrations are characteristic scenes 
of V'enetian life and special features of Venetian 
fashion, and I think they prove the truth of what Mr 
G. Howell in his " Familiar Letters " says of Venice : 
— "A place where is nothing wanting that heart can 
wish." 

EDGCUMBE STALEY. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

PREFACE ........ V 

INTRODUCTION— 

I. Venice — " The City of Venus ' . . . . xiii 

II. Venice— "The City of Saints". . . . xvi 

III. Venice — " The City of ' Fair ' Women " . . xxiv 

CHAPTER I. 

"To the Lagunes ! " — The dreaded Huns — Aquileia la Bella — 
Adriana the Heroine — La Maga Irene — Degna D'Aquileia — 
Viragoes — Hawsers of Women's Hair — Venezia Seconda — Longo- 
bards — Altino and the Storks — The first Doge of Eraclea — Early 
Dress and Manners — Charlemagne — The first Dogaressa — Rivo- 
Alto Parent of Venice — Agneilo and Elena Badoero — First 
Makers of Venice — Houses — Customs — Love of Flowers — First 
Ducal Palace — Translation of St Mark's Body — Basilica of San 
Marco Built — Doges and Dogaresses enter Religion — Position of 
Women — Lovers — The Pegne — Marriage Ceremonies — Arcelle — 
Legend of " La Boccola '" — Festa delle Marie — A Slave Dogar- 
essa — The Rape of the Brides — A low-born Mistress — Proud 
Valdrada da Toscana — A Rich Dowry — Slaves — Athletic Sports 
— Fire at the Palace — Assassination of Doge Pietro Candiano IV. 
— Valdrada's Vengeance — The Love-story of Gerardo Guoro 
and Elena Candiano . . . .1-41 

CHAPTER II. 

Legends — St Pietro Orseolo— The Pala D'Oro— A Hard Biscuit 
— "Good" Dogaressa Felicia — Dress of the Nobles — Light Blue 
— Ninzioletti — "A Stupid Man" — Seven Sisters — An Amorous 
Gondolier — A Diplomatic Marriage — The Princess Maria — The 
Flag of Venice — A Laurel-crowned Dogaressa — "Venice wants 
for Nothing ! " — Dogaressa Teodora — A Splendid Court — Greek 
Menus — An Exquisite Toilet — The Crusades — The Last of the 
Giustiniani — A Nun's Devotion — "A Miracle of Probity!" — 
Relics of the Saints — The "Bigots" — Tragic death of Doge 
Vitale Michielo — The Pope and the Emperor in Venice — The 
'' Bucintoro "— " The Marriage of the Sea "—Sports Clubs— The 
Dogal Regalia— Prices current — "The Grand Old Man of 
Venice" — The Oriflamme of San Marco — Many Widows in 
Venice — " Venus Calva " . . . . . . 42-83 

CHAPTER III. 

The Legend of the Coral Net— Origin of Venetian Point- Lace— 
The Fragilie or Guilds — Dogaressa Maria Baseggio's son torn 
to pieces — A terrible Earthquake — A Year of Jubilee— The 

vii 



Contents 



Marea Am^osa—S^3j cf :-e 0^1: = ^-.s 


—Marriage—The Fledge 


<rf Peace— Dogal Pre: r • - ::i . 


1— Vision of Rose-trees 


and Doves— The = F^r i - :- 


--rt Cistoms — Madonna 


Cataxnssa and tit .?r.-. Z : 


-? 5— A Table of 


Etiquette— Za T _ 


— ~ e Ik^aressas- 


Patroness of the CrsZ 5— A ^: : 


: Zz&CdDi 


/>£(» — Proq)eroii; T:r t= — Trt 2 ;^z: -s 


:- i'^ —An Auto- 


cratic D<^e — Sis..- j.:its— Tre Z::i;t 


:: 7:-:.:---7 .: Cas- 




T— 7,\T ^ tt; iTTTrd-f 


••LaBeata"— S:ri- - I :--: 


:__.::.:.. ! ::■ ,::.-_:_ ._ 


Conspiraaes— G:-5 _i .v:5.: i._i .: : - 


;::-t : i" :; li.. - ;..: ::.; . 



CHAPTER IV. 

'• A Galley fidl of Demons ! " — Th= Lrge:id of " The Fisherman 
and the Ring'* — Doge Zorz; I' So.".; — Zigzressa Franchesina 
" Qaeen of Voiice" — ^The :i: t ::: 5::: :: :r:::.i;3. Soranzo- 
Querino — ^A Ccmo Ux the 1 r^ r;.i — T .t Si.e-z E-rry <rf 
D<^aressa Klisabefta — &ice- .: S -7 ;r_i ' : : 1— 5---~aiy 
Laws and Bridal Tronsseai;: — Tvr 7 7 — 7!t 7TreE- 

of Venetian Paintors — ^Alea r^i 7 r — 7:: i : 7: lii r i 
de* Fieschi— The Black DtiT^— r -- rs:: : : - :: r 
Faliero — Michele Steno's 1-5 7: — Tit 7. .r i: — 7 r 7 rt 
never lies ! " — Broken-heart ei 7 : r- ess^ -_! : : i — 7. t J i : 
on ''Woman's Inflaoice'' — 7^1 ::: litis — T .:: tiiri — 7. e 
Stcwy of Veneianda Porta — 7it J .::;— 7. 7 : : 7 r .t . — 
"Slippers, Cabbages acd 77ri: rzrs . — .- ise V:._:t7; 7_- 
capade — A7"e-t iir. 7:_:u; — 7. 7 ^eric Prophecy . . 126-166 

CHAPTER V 

TheZe-:- :f rce 7):;-es-— A rr^A itlA^-i F---— The 
RitBRl— 7 :zi: z£;i :7:.:m 7;.7- i-S:e- 7s ••7--?; 77:-V:- '— 
Venice -t 7^i:-=--— -^-'-•/■-d"^--- --^-■■- 7^.:.:— 7.:;/;7:'; 77..— 
Sxmip:::-:s cresses — Wooden Pattens — Zt : : — _ r z- :s— . . 
Balori: — 7. L ire '^irh an Iron Will — ADsi-.ei Ze;.::. — .-. 
Brave 7;ri:ts:- — Tie Tragedy of 7:i: :~: Jisn:: — 7 t 
longcs: _ :i'z:': — . _z:nt ^^eodii;£'-<r:;": : :/ r — .-_ ^tr s -7^:. r. — 
A Mag-:-:.::: 7:^:-e_u— !:::_' . i/.: 7;::.. — .-. ! :::r: 7nr.::v 

xic ^G_i -LcJvi l£iC o^cOl i -.-1.I1 IL^iii'dG. oJO^^ciS^ A-i'x>^a-i- 

essa Giovanna Dandolo-Malipiero, Patrcmess of Printiug 
and Lace-making — ^The First Published Book — BuraneUe — 
Patriardial Doges and Dogazessas — Qteafmess — Young CavaHeis' 
Long Hair — Good Dogaiessa Cristina Sanudo-Moro — An 
Opulent D<^e — Dogaressa Dea— " The Venus of the Centurj- : '" 
— Who was Donna Lama Nogazola ? .... 167-209 

CHAPTER W. 

The Gardens of Venice — Maxano Palace- Villas — Symposia — 
Pietro Bembo and the Littirati — Ariosto and Aretino — " Venus 
the Fruitful" — Venetian Dialec: — Cristina Pisano and Cassan- 

viii 



Contents 

PAGE 

dra Fedele — Two Dogaressas — Gold Regalia — Dresses worth 
^2000 apiece ! — A Connoisseur Doge — Dowries with Conditions 
— Venice Disgraced — Costly Gifts — Wild Beasts — A Disastrous 
Fire — A Plague-stricken Dogaressa — A Splendid Funeral — A 
Terrible Pestilence — Dogal-Fraternal Disputes — Beauteous 
Slaves — Their Prices and Uses — Discovery and Decline — Duchess 
Beatrice D'Este—" Great Dolls ! "—Nepotism— The Man of the 
Hour — A Widower Doge — The League of Cambrai — Cream- 
coloured horses for Henry VIII. — Disasters — No "Marriage of 
the Sea" — La Pace delle Z>^;z«^— Spectacular Plays — Gorgeous 
Madonna Giovanna Emo — The Grimani Breviary — Wild-fowl — 
The ^^ Osella" — The Dogaressa's Coronation banned — Doge 
Andrea Gritti's pompous Progress — Fat Pork and Onions ! — 
Old Marta — Peep at the Dogaressa in Bed ! — Frate Pietro 
Casola's Account of Venetian Fashions — "What sort of a wife 
has he got?" ....... 210-251 

CHAPTER VII. 

A Doge and Dogaressa of the Fisher-Folk — Dogaressa Zilia 
Dandolo-Priuli's Coronation — " I am delighted with every- 
thing ! " — Gorgeous Obsequies — The Republic at Peace — 
Talented Dogaressa Loredana Marcello-Mocenigo — Visit of 
Henry III. of France — Extravagant dissipation — Bold Courtesans 
— Veronica Franco — A Venetian Sappho — Battle of Lepanto — 
A Hero Doge — '' The Golden Rose" — An Amiable Dogaressa 
— Bianca Cappello — ' ' Daughters of Venice — Caterina Cornaro — 
Dogaressa Morosina Morosini-Grimani — Lavish Largesse — 
Laudatory Orations — Stamped gilded Leather — A Magnificent 
State Robe — A Water-Pageant — Two hundred thousand visitors 
— A Grand Naval Review — International Sports — Dogaressa's 
love of lace ....... 252-291 

CHAPTER Vin. 

The Sun of Venice set! — Many short-lived Doges and 
Dogaressas — Games at Cards — A stout unwieldy Dogaressa ! 
— Another Hero-Doge — The Morea conquered — "Woman 
maketh Man !" — A wrinkled face — Loss of Candia — Universal 
idleness and indulgence — Venice dying as a whirling ballet- 
dancer ! — A virtuous Dogaressa — Her cell a treasure-house — 
A Princess -costumier — A dress of solid gold! — A costly 
wedding — The Tragedy of Madonna Francesca Grimani- 
Mocenigo — A Lady-bountiful — A Cultured Dogaressa — Polis- 
sena — A Rope-dancer Dogal spouse, Margherita Delmaz — 
" Stop that bell ! "— A'gnello Emo the last Captain of Venice— 
The Last Scene — Feeble Doge Lodovico Manin — A despairing 
Dogaressa — The roar of cannon ! — Abdication of the Doge — 
The Regalia burnt — Buonaparte hands Venice over to Austria 
— ^^ La Republica xe Morta" ..... 292-314 



IX 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



An Ideal Portrait — Dogaressa Teodora Selvo, 
La Maga Irene holding a Reception, 
11 Sposalizio — The Betrothal Ring, . 
La Cazza del Toro — Bull-running, 
A Typical Family Group, .... 
The Dogaressa and her Maids of Honour, 
Going to a Masked Ball, .... 
A Mystic Dance, ..... 
Doge Reniero and Dogaressa Aloicia Zeno, 
A Court Ball Parade, .... 
Doge Francesco and Dogaressa Elisabetta 

Dandolo, .... 
Two Courtesans and Pets, 
Festa Campestre — Picnic on the Brenta, 
La Ninfa — A Love Affair, . 
Marriage Reception in a Palace, 
Fashionable Hair-dressing, 
Dance in a Villa Garden, . 
Le Novizze — Brides in Gondolas, 
A Bride's Debut, .... 
Dogaressas Zilia Dandolo-Priuli ; Loredana Mar 
cello-Mocenigo ; and Cecilia Contarini 
Venier, ..... 
Dogaressa Loredana Marcello-Mocenigo, 
Dogaressa Morosina Morosini-Grimani, 
A Game at Cards — "Za; Trappola^^^ . 
The Fortune-Teller, .... 



Frontisj, 


')iece 


To face 


page 4 *. 


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24 ^ 


5) 


36-. 


5) 


46- 


J? 


62 I 


)) 


76 


5J 


92 - 


55 


102 "- 


55 


118 


55 


138 ^ 


55 


152 


)J 


162 


55 


176 


55 


192 : 


55 


208 ^ 


55 


216 


55 


226 ,. 


55 


238 ^ 




Z Voi- 


55 


254 i- 


55 


268 i. 


55 


282 'y 


53 


294 A- 


55 


304 ^ 



XI 



INTRODUCTION 

VENICE— ''The City of Venus!" 

The '* Queen of the Adriatic " came into being quite 
as mysteriously and almost as miraculously as did the 
" Queen of Beauty." 

Where the iridescent bubbles of the light zephyr- 
borne foam of the ever-flowing sea-wash disperse, 
with intangible impact, upon the golden strand of 
shallow shoals, all strewn with opal-hued sea-shells — 
making plaintive cadences in the keen sea-breeze — 
there, there, was Venus born — so too was Venice ! 

The fair form of the fascinating goddess lay prone 
— partly in and partly out, of the generating water 
until the breath of life, skimming over the crested 
ripples, exhilarated her blushing limbs. Most delicate 
sprays of aromatic seaweed intermingled with the 
abundant tresses of her rich auburn hair, flawless 
pearls of the ocean threaded themselves around her 
shapely arms and bosom, her cincture was a cunning 
veil of coloured sea-mist, and her feet were covered 
with glittering scales of gold and silver fish. 

Upon the aqueous shore the Four Seasons wait 
with their twelve attendant lunar nymphs to cast 
about their '' Venus calva" the emerald and topaz 
girdle of virginity, and the ruby and sapphire mantle 
of royalty. A merrily dancing chorus of seven times 
fifty-and-two dainty fairies of the day, hand-in-hand, 
are ready to escort their Queen through the amber 
grotto to her royal throne beneath the myrtle-grove. 

xiii 



Introduction 

All this is metaphorical of the " City of Venus " 
— Venice — for, to quote Shelley's tender ode : — 

" Underneath day's azure eyes, 
Ocean's darling, Venice, lies." 

Sea and silt united were the parents of the 
"daintie Citie." Ebbing, ever ebbing, the brackish 
head-waters of the gulf heaped up grain on grain 
of terra-firma — the detritus of many a fruitful river 
and the shifting rolling sea-sand. Thus was Venice 
formed, "born," as Goethe says, ''out of the water." 
" Venice calva " laid along the lagunes, her graceful 
form reposed upon the velme or barene of Rivo-Alto, 
Olivolo, and Poveglia — sand and sea-weed sub- 
merged ; her shapely feet rested upon the firmer 
ground of Malamocco and Chioggia ; and her comely 
hands grasped the tumbe or sedge-growth, — seldom 
covered by the tide, — of Torcello, Burano, and 
Mazzorbo. 

Rivo-Alto, or Rialto, was the first of sixty sisters 
of the languishing lagunes. Over them silence and 
solitude reigned supreme, but the sun shone with 
srenerous warmth and the breeze blew with healthful 
vigour, and, almost imperceptibly variegated moss 
clothed the naked rive and lidi. Green math and 
rush covered the golden dunes, flowers of the sea, — 
pinks and anemones, — and blossoms of the land, — 
lavender and poppies, imparted colour and fragrance 
to the wastes of mud. 

For hundreds of years, and hundreds more, those 
oozy quicksand swamps were nesting-grounds for 
wild birds of the sea — the feeding-place of feathered 
visitants migrating to other climes. The depths 
were choked with fish, and the shallows reeked with 

xiv 



Introduction 

creeping things, but no hold was there for foot of man 
or spoor of beast. 

Then, in historic times, into those sandy shifting 
channels came strange forms, scaring both fish and 
fowl away — the coracles of daring aborigines, from 
the contiguous shores in quest of food and what-not. 
Uncouth men cast their nets and spread their snares 
amidst struggles for proprietorship — the lagunes had 
changed their character. 

Another era dawned, that of fire and storm, and 
fugitives from the devastating wrath of Alaric and 
the Goths fled, crouching, scared, and breathless, for 
sanctuary to the lagune fastnesses. With them 
appeared corsairs of the coast, preying upon the 
hunted men and women and seeking hiding-places 
for their pelf Thus a ribald population grew up 
amid the trackless ways of no-man's land. 

For bare existence had they to fight — no 
weakling child, no thriftless woman, no loafing man 
could long endure that fierce survival of the fittest. 
Stripped to their loin-cloths men worked to give 
stability to their foothold in the swamp. Balks of 
timber from submerged forests were clamped to- 
gether and great piles of wood driven deep, deep 
down into the ooze and silt. Women girding up 
their skirts waded knee-deep in the sea-wash, weav- 
ing osier basket-work to retain what grains of 
gravel rested beneath their feet. Children fetched 
and carried. 

Flotsam and jetsam all came ready to hands 
which clawed and thewed for mutual advantage. 
Shelters of dry mud or baked sunslime with boarded 
roofs, windowless and without doors, were the homes 
of these strenuous people. Then, by degrees, every 



XV 



Introduction 

safest stretch of sand had its dotting of cottages and 
its hamlets. Besides the daily struggle to keep the 
greedy water out and the slender soil retain, there 
was much to do for one and all. Fishing, bird-snar- 
ing, carrying and piloting of goods and craft were 
obvious occupations ; and then came the rendering 
of salt and bitumen, and the gradual cultivation of 
the bleak wind-swept islets. 

Some sort of constitution was in force from the 
earliest date : the best man of each collection of 
dwellings was looked upon as head and guide, and 
he gathered the wisdom that he lacked from men 
next him in years and influence. The people of 
the lagunes were not savages — they were the de- 
scendants of men and women highly civilised. 
Invention and creation were instinct in them all, 
and they were Christians too. Their legislation and 
religion were based upon the examples of their 
forebears in the mainland. All looked to Rivo-Alto, 
— the port of Padua, it was called, — as the centre of 
their geographical economy, and there, too, in 421, 
Padua sent consuls to regulate the lives and property 
of the water-settlers and to safeguard the common 
weal from inroads of barbarians. 



VENICE — "The City of Saints!" 

is quite as appropriate a title as any other bestowed 
upon the '' Queen of the Adriatic." The translation 
of the body of Saint Mark the Evangelist from 
Alexandria, in 829, excited in every class of the 
population a fervid emotion and an insatiable 
ambition for the possession of relics of the Saints, 

xvi 



Introduction 

not alone as objects of devotion but as mascots for 
protection. 

Bodies — more or less entire — were exhumed, 
purchased, or stolen, from scenes of fierce martyr- 
dom, or from quiet resting places, and reverently 
conveyed in Venetian galleys to the Lido for distri- 
bution among the churches of the Lagunes. Each 
translation was an exhibition of manly abasement 
and womanly devotion : Doge and Dogaressa, no 
less than the poorest of the poor, took part in the 
ecstatic ceremonies. 

Each saintly personage had ascriptions of 
peculiar benevolence, and became the centre of 
special devotions ; indeed many of the holy shrines 
were regarded as objects of perpetual pilgrimages. 
Venetian manners, Venetian poetry and literature, 
and Venetian vernacular, were all marked by the 
hagiography of the saintly city. 

In a very curious volume published in Venice by 
Giacomo Zoppi, in 15 19, entitled " Viaggia da 
Vinegia al Santo Sepolcro et al Monte Sinai," and 
illustrated by quaint wood-cuts of cities, peoples, 
and animals, encountered by the way, is a list of 
the bodies of Saints enshrined in Venetian Churches, 
in the following order : — 

San Marco " Messer San Marco"— St. Mark 
the Evangelist, from Alexandria, under 
the high altar ; (2) The glorious Martyr 
Sant' Isidoro, from the Island of Chios, in 
the Chapel of the Crucifixion — (1125). 

San Pietro di Caste llo : — SS. Sergio and Bacco, 
in a marble tomb in the crypt of the Con- 
fession. 
b xvii 



Introduction 

Sa7i Danicle : — San Giovanni, martyr from 
Alexandria. 

San Giovanbattista in Bragora : — San Giovanni 
the Almsgiver, Patron of Alexandria. 

Sanf Antonino : — " Messer San Sabba," Abbot 
of Acre — (992). 

6'5'. Trinita : — Venerable monk and martyr, 
Sant' Anastatio. 

San Zaccaria: — (i) "Messer San Zaccaria," 
father of St. John Baptist ; (2) San 
Gregorio Nazanzino, Patriarch of Con- 
stantinople ; (3) San Teodoro, confessor, 
from the Island of Samos ; (4) San Pan- 
crazio, martyr, in a marble sarcophagus ; 
(5) Santa Sabina, martyr of Acre, in a 
marble sarcophagus ; (6) San Tharaso, 
martyr, of Roumania, in the crypt ; (7) 
San Ligerio, martyr. 

San Lorenzo: — SS. Giorgio, Barbaro, and 
Paul — Bishop, martyrs all from Con- 
stantinople. 

San Sebastiano : — Venerable Sebastiano, rector 
of San Giovanni (head wanting !) 

Santa Mari7ia : — Venerable nun and patient 
martyr Marina, in the choir, from Greece. 

San S alv adore : — San Teodoro, martyr, from 
Constantinople, — martyr et cavalier di Dio, 

San Paterniano : — SS. Gondino and Epimaeo. 

San Giuliano Martiro : — (i) San Floriano, 
martyr, from Greece ; (2) San Paolo, 
hermit (head wanting!) 

Sa7i Canciano : — San Maximo, bishop and 
martyr. 

San Maria delli Crocichieri (^Formosa): — 
xviii 



Introduction 

Venerable virgin and martyr Santa Bar- 
bara, — in a '^ bella cappellaT 

San Geremia ; — Venerable Magno — Bishop of 
Altino, builder of the first church in 
Venice. 

Santa Lucia: — Venerable Santa Lucia, virgin 
and martyr, in a chapel. Translated from 
Saragossa to Constantinople, and thence 
to Venice. 

SS. Gervasio e Prothasio — called '' Sa Tro- 
vasi " — Santo Grisogono, martyr from 
Zara. 

San Niccolo dai Mendigoli : — San Niceto, 
martyr. 

San Rafiaelo : — Santa Niceta, virgin and martyr 
from Nicomedia. 

San Basileo : — San Costantio, confessor, from 
Ancona, in a coffer before the high altar. 

Sant' Apollinare — called " San Aponal " : — 
San Gioria, prophet. 

Sfan Simeone Propheto : — ( i ) San Simeone, 
from Constantinople — in a marble sarco- 
phagus before the high altar ; (2) San 
Hermoleo, priest and martyr, from Nico- 
media — in a marble sarcophagus in the 
middle of the nave. 

Sanf Elena: — ''The glorious Queen Sant' 
Elena" — (1205). 

San Niccolo di Lio [Lido): — (i) San Niccolo 
Magno, Archbishop of Mirraea (iioo); 
(2) San Niccolo, Bishop and Abbot of 
Mount Sinai ; (3) San Theodoro, Arch- 
bishop of Morea. 

San Giorgio Maggiore : — (i) San Stefano, first 

xix 



Introduction 

martyr, in a special chapel (i 105) ; (2) San 

Paolo, Duke and martyr of Constantinople ; 

(3-4) SS. Cosimo and Damiano, mart^TS ; 

(5) San Cosima, confessor and virgin, from 

Constantinople. 
San Cleyneytte Papa : — Sant' Aniano, Patriarch 

of Alexandria, disciple of Saint Mark. 
San Seruilio : — San Leo. Bishop of Modon — 

(819). 

San Secondo : — San Secondo, mart)T, from 

Aste. 
Santa Maria di Miirano : — (i) San Donate. 

bishop and martxT, in the cr\-pt — (11 25); 

(2) San Gerardo. Bishop of Moravia and 

mart}-r — a Venetian by birth. 
Sanf Albano di Burano : — (i) Sant' Albano, 

Bishop : (2) Sant' Orso. martyr ; and (3) 

San Domenigo, hermit and confessor, both 

from Armenia. 
Santa Maria di Torcello: — Sant' Eliodoro, 

Bishop of Altino and martyr. 
Basilica di Torcello: — San Fosca, viro-in and 

martyr from Aquileia. 
Sant' Antonio di Torcello : — Santa Cristina, 

virgin and mart}-r, from Armenia. 
Basilica di Grado : — (i) San Hermacoro, 

Patriarch of Aquileia ; (2) San Fortunato, 

archdeacon — both in the cr}-pt. 
Sayita Croce del la Zecca : — "The body of the 

most holy Doctor Saint Athanasius, 

Patriarch of Alexandria." 
Basilica di Chiosa (Chioggia) .• — SS. Felice and 

Fortunato (?) from Aquileia. 
San Rocco di Chiosa : — San Rocco. 

XX 



Introduction 

In addition to these Bodies were very many- 
other relics of Saints, for example ; arms of St. 
Andrew the Apostle, St. Barnabas the Apostle, 
St. George of Cappadoccia, heads of St. Sixtus 
the martyr, S. Simeon the Apostle, etc., etc. 
Every Church has its reliquary for veneration, 
and in it a fragment of the True Cross. 

Venice, moreover was a nursery of Saints : she 
numbered among her honoured dead scions of 
nearly every noble family who, for one good reason 
or another, had attained to the pre-eminence of 
Sanctity. Such were San Pietro Orseolo, San 
Lorenzo Guistiniani and San Vincentio Ferrar — to 
name but three. A religious atmosphere pervaded 
the islands of the Lagunes and kept alight many 
a kindled shrine on mud-bank pile and at casa 
corner. Inside the homes of the Venetians also, 
according to orthodox custom, were Ikons and 
Anconas with candles burning in honour of favourite 
saints. 

Nevertheless, and in spite of such a wealth 
of saintly environment, the Venetians were un- 
doubtedly backward in sending their sons to fight 
the battles of the Cross in Palestine. On the 
other hand they were ready with no niggard 
contributions in aid of Crusaders from other lands. 
Venetian gold, Venetian ships, and Venetian sea- 
men, carried the armies of the Cross to foreign 
ports ; and Venetian alms endowed hospitals and 
funds for the benefit of the wounded and the sad, 
upon the islands of the Lagunes. 

In the " Viaggia da Vinegia " is a very simple 
but doubtless efficacious recipe for the treatment 
of weary Crusaders : — " For pilgrims suffering from 

xxi 



Introduction 

the heat and tender feet, anoint with wine-lees 
mixed with oHve oil overnight ; then, in the morning 
wash in a bath of sweet herbs and sweet water." 

Perhaps the reason for the apparent luke- 
warmness in the defence of the Holy Sepulchre 
may be seen in the isolation of the lagune dwellers. 
They were not in such close touch with other 
communities as are nations with artificial boundaries. 
Their charity beo^an at home, and their customs 
were unlike those of their neighbours. All 

o 

islanders are so differentiated from inhabitants of 
continents : citizens of the British Isles are 
remarkable to-day for insular idiosyncrasies. 

Venice is still one of the most reliofious cities 
in all Italy. Prayer never ceases, the Blessed 
Sacrament is perpetually exposed, the churches 
are open night and day, and the devotions have 
little that is merely perfunctory. 

Saint Giustina was one of the saintly patrons 
of Venice. She was a Paduan maiden of Royal 
birth — a dauQ^hter of Kino; Vitalicinio. Haled 
before the Roman Emperor she professed herself 
a Christian : in vain did he strive to shake her 
resolution. Sentenced to be beheaded the sword 
of her executioner turned upon himself, and this 
occurred three times in succession. Eventually, in 
303, she was cast into the sea and drowned. 

Mariners sailinof along- the \^enetian Coast still, 
it is said, hear at the hour of Vespers, the sighs of 
the holy martyr, and the devouter sort cross them- 
selves reverentlv and crave her oruidance and 
patronage. In Venetian art Saint Giustina 
accompanies Saint Mark, Saint George, and Saint 
Catherine of Alexandria as assistants at the throne 

xxii 



Introduction 

of the Virgin Queen of Heaven. The unicorn 
generally accompanies her — the mystic emblem of 
chastity. 

The first church dedicated to her honour was 
built at Padua in 453 by Orpillo, a pious citizen, in 
times of unrest and disaster. In Venice Saint 
Giustina's church was erected by Dogaressa Elena, 
spouse of Doge Agnello Badoero : it was situated 
in the Calle del Te Deum but suppressed and dis- 
mantled in the seventh century. 

A very pretty legend is linked to the memory 
of Saint Giustina. It is recorded that when the 
people of Altino and the other towns threatened by 
the Longobards flew disconsolately to the islands of 
the lagunes, a white cloud appeared to two holy 
priests Germaniano and Mauro and out of it pro- 
ceeded the sweetest of all voices — that of Saint 
Mary the Consoler. With her conversed Saint Peter 
the Apostle, Saint John the Baptist, Saint Antonio 
of Padua, and other holy martyrs. Saint Giustina 
joined the sacred conclave and was deputed to 
indicate to the faithful clerics the spots whereupon 
it was the will of Heaven that churches should be 
built. Torcello, Burano and Mazzorbo owe their 
sacred edifices to the girl Saint's instruction. She 
also told Bishop Magnus of Altino that wherever he 
found a vine there to erect a church. At Padua 
one may see the prison of the Saint — a dungeon 
seven feet by three. The martydom of Saint 
Giustina has tenderly inspired the pen of the poet 
and the brush of the painter, and they have 
together handed down a delightful tradition for 
Saint Giustina was regarded as the '' Patroness of 
the Dogaressa." 

xxiii 



Introduction 

VENICE— "The City of 'Fair' Women!" 

The two things most famous and most remarkable 
in Venice, throughout the whole of her fascinating 
story, are first of all the beauty of her women, and 
secondly the splendour of her palaces. No city in 
the wide wide world, ever did, or ever can, compare 
with Venice in the number and magnificence of her 
palaces. They are as unique and as majestic, 
individually and collectively, as is the Queenly 
City herself. Concerning them, that trenchant 
epigram of Francesco Sansovino, the historian, 
** Veni Etiam " is a truism — Come again and again, 
and you shall always find some fresh beauty, some 
unimagined delight. 

Venice had a greater distinction far, than the 
elegance of her private and public buildings, — she 
was always full of beautiful women. " I never 
beheld," exclaimed the Cardinal of Lorraine to 
Doge Pasquale Malipiero, **such a number of 
lovely women as I see everywhere in your bewitch- 
ing city ! " 

Nicolo Ciccio d'Arezzo, a poetaster of the 
fifteenth century, invited all true poets to sing 
with him the praise and glory of " Tanta Donna'' 
as he suggestively calls the woman-effigy of Venice. 
He unites with Jacopo d'Albiggotto, and Guido da 
Firenze, in the enthusiastic refrain : — 

" Di tutta Italia^ Lombardia^ e Toscana, 
Secondo che si vede per effeto 
Vinegia e la piu nobile e sovrana.^^ 

Gianni Alfani, a poet of the thirteenth century, 
in his *' Gentildonne di Vinegia'' writes thus : — " I 

xxiv 



Introduction 

wish to sing with you about my Mistress, because 
she is adorned with every virtue and every charm." 

The women of Venice were always distinguished 
for their natural quickness and intelligence, their 
sprightliness and vivacity of manner, their talkative- 
ness and coaxing ways, and their fondness of music, 
song and dance. Perhaps their most characteristic 
talent however was their devotion to the toilet — 
their love of beauty and of clothes ! 

In person they were usually somewhat short of 
stature, but endowed with grace of carriage. Their 
figures, especially their bosoms, were full even to 
the degree of stoutness. This was in a great 
measure due to the softness of the Venetian climate, 
which induced a natural and becoming indolence. 
Nevertheless they were vigorous in action and 
quite able to give a good account of themselves in 
marital and other squabbles ! 

Their features were clearly cut and yet not too 
severe, their heads well shaped and borne, their 
eyes blue like their skies or grey like their seas, and 
their hands and feet were small. Their most 
attractive attributes were the fair satin peach-like 
delicacy of their skin, and the brilliant lustre and 
golden sheen of their abundant light auburn hair. 
Speaking of the consummate art and artifice of 
Venetian women Pietro Aretino exclaimed : — 

" Sotto il nero trasparente velo 
Veggonsi in came gli angeoli del cielo ! " 

That most fallacious saying, — *' Beauty is but 
skin deep," — never applied to Venetian women. 
Their fair beauty, like all real beauty, not only 
covered the whole person externally but it was 



Introduction 

instinct in their blood, their muscle, and their nerve, 
— moreover it was hereditary. The early parents 
of the race, or rather intermingled races, were 
Trojans and Greeks : then Teutonic - Lombard 
fathers mated with mothers of Veneto and the 
Lagunes, and the stock became stable in its pro- 
perties of strength, grace, and beauty. Pliny, of 
old time, truly cast their horoscopes when he wrote 
of the first mothers of Venice thus : — '' They are 
chaste, simple, and modest, they never give them- 
selves away even when their men folk are idle and 
lascivious, their character and demeanour are marked 
by Grecian calmness." Surely he had in view the 
line of the Dogaressas ! 

The treatment of the skin was a speciality of the 
Venetian women. The use of the bath was one of 
their inheritances, they bathed the whole body fre- 
quently, sometimes in the sea at the Lido, but 
every house had its bath — in humble homes of 
wood or common metal, in patrician palaces of 
porcelain, glass, or silver. With the water they 
mixed simple or exotic perfumes. One of their 
secrets was to remain, with the whole body im- 
mersed and motionless, for at least half an hour ; 
and another was, they never rubbed the skin but 
just dabbed it and let it dry naturally. Then the 
nostrums of the masseusses' art were exploited. A 
not uncommon custom was to lay a slice of raw veal, 
dipped in new milk, upon the face at night ! For 
richer women other artifices followed suit — puffs 
and powders to gently temper the epidermis or hide 
unsightly blotches, and pigments, — rouge and 
others, — with which art might most effectively 
colour crude or enervated nature. 



Introduction 

Every woman and girl in Venice, at all times, 
painted, — even the poorest of them. The cult Is 
still practised at Chioggia, where you never see a 
woman without artificial colour. There, by the 
way, may be seen still the true Venetian type of 
female beauty, and the old Venetian trait of sitting 
leisurely, under shade or shelter, while some 
sympathetic voice reads Ariosto or some other 
favourite poet. 

One very delightful attribute of Venetian women 
was their fragrance, — their skins and their hair were 
always perfumed. Wherever a gentledonna passed 
she left behind her a delicious aroma, if she paused 
the air around her became saturated with sweetest 
odours. This seductive charm is still characteristic 
of the real Venetian : her love of scent is hereditary 
and delightful. In a very real sort of way the 
Venetian gentildonna was a living embodiment of 
Venus — *' the fairest and the sweetest of all the 
Goddesses : " hence Venice has been quite aptly 
called the " City of Venus, — the City of Fair 
Women." A couplet from San Gemignano Is quite 
applicable to this delightful fancy : — 

" Donzellette, giovane^ e garzoni 
Servir portare amorose ghirlande^ 

There was one especial favourite among all the 
delicious perfumes which dispersed their sweet 
aroma all over Venice, and Count Lorenzo Maga- 
lotti, in his " Fiore d' Arancio,'' tells us how it was 
made. ''Take," he says, ''the empty skin of an 
orange, with a little powdered benzoin, with two 
pounded cloves, and a small stick of cinnamon, 
cover them with the finest rose water and set ta 

xxvii 



Introduction 

boil upon a brazier." In the sixteenth century the 
far famed Portugese buccheri got to Venice, — Httle 
charms of sweet-smelling clay — and they very soon 
became every woman's treasures. The odour dis- 
persed when a bucchero was dipped in hot water was 
very refreshing, and resembled the aroma which 
arises from parched ground on a hot summer's day 
after a copious shower of rain. When dipped in 
essences they gave forth for ever so long the 
sweetest of perfumes : women wore them in their 
bosoms, and were accustomed to place them often 
upon their lips, so that their kisses might be scented 
too! 

Not only were the girls and women of " Venice 
— the City of Saints " much drawn to the general 
claims and duties of religion but, in particular, they 
were exponents of some of its minor behests. The 
Apostle speaks of the hair of women and says it 
was given them to be a protection and a glory. 
The Venetians exactly carried out the apostolic 
injunction. 

From the very first foundation of Rivo-Alto, 
away in the fifth century, the women of the lagunes 
were accustomed to resort daily to the altane, or 
flat-roofs of their dwellings, and there spend much 
time in combing and dressing their hair in the 
sunshine. This habit they undoubtedly inherited 
from their Greek ancestresses. Homer sings 
about **the beautiful fair hair of the Greeks," 
and he has painted the captivating Helen of Troy 
with abundant locks of gold. The general colour 
of Grecian women's hair was brown, — light and 
dark, — and such naturally was the hue of Venetian 
women's tresses. The poets however made a dead 

xxviii 



Introduction 

set against that tint, and stated their case so broadly, 
that brown hair was regarded with aversion as 
appertaining to traitors, murderers, and other evil 
doers ! The painters took up the cue, and we rarely 
see in the pictures of Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, 
Tintoretto or Veronese women with brown hair. 

Auburn, or, as they called it, — golden, hair, — 
was the most popular, most beautiful and most 
expressive. The more it glittered the better was 
it liked, and what Nature marred Art embellished. 
A primitive but withal most effective device in 
the Venetian artifices of the toilet was the super- 
imposition upon the top of the head, — the hair being 
well combed-out and rippling over the shoulders, — 
of a crownless, wide-brimmed straw hat called solana 
— "sun-frame." The brim shielded the neck and 
bosom, while the sunlight, not the heat, got at the 
roots of the hair and blanched its growth. Every 
altana\s2A its group of animated "mushrooms" — 
each woman and girl sitting thus, and ever and 
anon damping the exposed hair and cuticle with a 
small sponge, stuck at the end of a spinning-spindle 
or some such sceptre, and dipped in cunning 
tinctures. Beneath the brim of the solana big 
long-toothed combs of yellow tortoiseshell were 
used to keep the hair supple, or frizzing-irons, or 
bones to make it curl or wave. This method was 
admirably effective, and it is still adopted privately 
by many a beautiful Venetian girl and buxom dame. 
With respect to the recipes employed in the con- 
coction of the tinctures little can be authoritatively 
said, for each fair one kept her elixir and its secret 
to herself. Anyhow, generally speaking, one may 
say that the finest of fine Lido golden sand, crushed 

xxix 



Introduction 

vitreous plaques of Murano, ivory sawdust, pounded 
sea-shells and, — in exuberant and extravagant 
humour, — even powdered pearls, and precious 
^old dust were employed. Vegetable compounds 
— the juice of grapes, berberis, ivy-berries, lemon- 
squash and orange- flavour, with aromatic powders 
of all sorts and kinds were also used. Dyes, strictly 
so called, were not in favour : their effect was 
ephemeral. 

Venetian women and girls owed a good deal to 
Dogaressa Teodora Selvo, in the eleventh century, 
for she introduced toilet batteries, fully furnished 
with all the requisites for skin, hair, and teeth, — 
together with delicious Eastern perfumes. Giovanni 
Marinello of Modena, in the sixteenth century, 
gathered up all that was known of the artifices of 
the coiffure in his classical work " Gli Ornamenti 
delle Donne r 

Venetians were past-mistresses in the mysteries 
of hair-dressing. The Greek style was always the 
most in favour, where the hair, not being too dry 
nor too tightly plaited, was drawn off the face and 
neck, tied in a ribbon at the back, and then coiled 
round and round the head, and stuck fast with 
combs and pins. The hard line of the forehead 
was tempered by a small row of curls under a 
semi-diadem, fillet, or crescent — called gabbia — 
literally ''a cage" — and usually made of precious 
metal and jewelled. This style Titian painted in 
the well-known portrait of his daughter Lavinia 
presenting a golden dish of ripe fruit. 

Another fashion affected by gay and opulent 
courtesans was called al Corno, with reference to 
the conventional head-dress of the Dogaressas. 



Introduction 

Sometimes only one horn was projected, at others 
two or even three or more. An invisible bandeau 
was hidden under the hair, bearing spikes of 
tortoiseshell or whalebone, up which single strands 
of hair were twisted and curled until they assumed 
the appearance of vine spirals and tendrils. This 
vogue lasted quite a long time — certainly from 1 540 
to 1630. It was a very difficult feat to arrange 
these horns becomingly, so as to avoid any idea 
of the ridiculous, the animal, or the demoniacal : 
irescenti they were euphemistically called, as sugges- 
tive of the crescent moon of Diana, — the Huntress 
of the Gods ! The painters never admired this 
style of hair-dressing, and very few of them, if any, 
have depicted the al Corno. Giacomo Franco and 
other engravers, however, have preserved for us 
illustrations of this peculiar mode. 

A third manner of hair-dressing was popular 
amongst quite young girls and aged women — the 
two extremes — the cap of Juliet. The hair was 
combed out and smoothed down, and then tight- 
fitting jaunty caps or nets were fitted close over the 
head behind the ears, leaving the long locks of 
hair spread out like fans upon the neck behind or 
in small ringlets. These caps were usually very 
beautifully made, as often as not of gold or silver 
thread or net, or wire and gemmed. A favourite 
style was a delicate net of silk or very small artificial 
flowers of blue, as contrasting most serenely with 
the golden glitter of the hair. 

Fashionables always carried fans, — not those 
with which we are familiar, — but little flags set on 
stems or poles ; ventolini — " windguards " — they 
were called. Strong sea-breezes, not strong sun- 

xxxi 



Introduction 

beams, were to be warded off, for they disturbed 
the hair and roughened the skin. Venetian beauties 
never, as we say, fanned themselves : they had no 
need to do so, because the sea air always tempered 
the sun's heat. These fans were from six to twelve 
inches square, arid were made of cloth of gold, 
richly embroidered silk, Burano lace, or feathers : 
they were fringed with beads and shells, through 
which the wind whistled musically when shaken in 
the air. The stem, — a foot or more long, — was 
usually of tortoiseshell, carved cedar-wood or of 
gold and silver, and jewelled for State occasions. 
In 1522 the Provvidetori delle Pompe published a 
decree of the Council regulating extravagant decora- 
tion of the ventolini. 

Venetians never used parasols or sunshades ; 
they wore their dress sleeves short in order to 
expose the arm, — with its jewelled bracelets above 
the elbow, — and their bare or lace-covered breasts, 
to the soft sea air of the lagunes and the not too 
ardent rays of the golden sun — nature's assistants in 
the labours of the toilet. 

" O fairest of the fair was she, 
Dream of gold and cremisini ; 
Peach-silk her skin, golden her hair, 
Gentildonna di Venezza.^^ 



xxxu 



THE DOGARESSAS OF 
VENICE 

CHAPTER I 



*' To the Lagunes ! "— '' To the Lagunes ! "— *' Attila 
Australis plaga ! "— *' Attila Flagello di Dio ! " — these 
were the despairing cries of panic-stricken people 
in dire distress. 

Ominous sounds came hustling over ragged 
peaks, and through dense forests from the lofty 
snow-fields of the distant Alps ; and, like the storm- 
borne scum of tempestuous seas, — leaping and 
hissing, — they tore along the hurrying torrents. 
Sweeping wildly over rippling lake and rolling plain 
the warning cry re-echoes across the ruffled waters 
of the salt marshes, and strikes terror in hearts of 
oak and pales brows of bronze. 

The heavy tread of barbarian hordes, their 
savage oaths, and the clashing of their rude weapons, 
rush upon the wings of the tramontana, as under- 
foot they trample the fertile lands of Gallia Togata 
on their way to Rome. 

The dreaded Huns are upon the prosperous 
Grseco- Roman cities of Veneto, with their noble 
civilisation, their graceful villas and gardens, their 
well-equipped baths and theatres, their imperial 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

palaces, their arsenals, and their mints. "Splendid 
Veneto," as Cassiodorus, the Emperor Maximus' 
famous minister of art and literature, in startled 
admiration, calls the province, — is doomed to 
destruction. 

The walls of Aquileia, — ''Aquileia la Bella" — 
called so from the beauty of her women, are the 
first to fall. Men and children are butchered re- 
lentlessly — stalwart fathers and helpless babes lie 
side by side, women are stripped and ravished, and 
the young girls carried along by the intoxicated 
savages — the fairest spoils of war. A weeping 
despairing band of fugitives alone escape the fury, 
and led by Secundus, their Archbishop, with his 
clergy carrying relics of Saints and sacred vessels, 
they hurry on till their blistered feet feel the cool 
sea-wash at Grado. 

Fruitful Concordia rooted up, her people fly to 
Caprule, — a swamp of corncrakes, where, in place of 
working in the arts and crafts as of yore, they are 
fain to tend sheep and goats for their livelihood — 
Caorle they called it later on. Studious, lordly 
Padua scatters her scholars and her patricians — 
Greek influence counts for nought face to face with 
brute force — and makes common cause with busy 
thriving Oderzo. Malamocco, with its sand-dunes, 
offers a shelter in the storm to the Paduans ; Eraclea 
and Jesolo, amid their pine- woods, conceal the 
Oderzani ; and Altino, smiling and fertile in times 
of peace — in war-time a desert and a tomb, sends 
stragglers to Torcello. 

Padua's King, alone of leaders, withstands the 
brunt of battle in 421 — brave Giano. Flight is 
not for him, and by his side stands, and stands she 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

will, or with her master fall, his wife. Queen Adriana 
the Heroine. 

Giano challenges Attila to personal conflict, 
whilst, wild and remorseless as they are, the Huns 
look on with admiration and encourage each valiant 
prince in turn. The Paduan skilfully parries the 
fierce onslaught of the '' Scourge of God " and, at 
last, although nigh bested, he lays his enemy low, 
and the victims of Veneto are avenged ! 

The Queen has stood all through the fell en- 
counter close behind her consort, stripped ready for 
the fray, for, should Giano fall, then she would try 
conclusions with Attila ! Snatching the fallen chief- 
tain's weapon, all gory with her husband's blood — 
it had entered nearly into his vitals — out of the 
death-grip of his strong right hand, she holds it aloft 
calling upon Heaven to avenge the blood of her 
people. 

To Rivo-Alto she bears it, in a lordly galley, 
a ghastly token of deliverance, and, there, upon 
hallowed ground she sets it up, where she plants 
her foot, in pledge of the church and convent which 
she vows she will erect, in memory of a hardly-won 
victory, to the honour of holy Raphael — the Arch- 
angelic healer of human wounds. 

Quite a different story with respect to the death 
of Attila is set forth eloquently in the erotic poem, 
" La Venezia Edificata," composed by Giulio Strozzi 
— a grandson of the great Filippo. Therein Oriana 
Augusta, daughter of the Empress Galla Placida, 
titular Queen of Dalmatia, is represented as con- 
sort by rape of the Hunnish King. Making her 
escape from the camp of her captor she fled to 
Venetia-al-Lido pursued by Attila. To prevent 

3 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

violation she leaped from the ship into the sea and 
came near perishing, until rescued by kindly hands 
from Aquileia. 

The barbarian chieftain vowed to be avenged 
upon the Aquileiese, and, they in their turn, vowed 
to guard the Queen. Attila had recourse to a 
famous fortune-teller of Aquileia, '' La Maga Irene," 
who, in consideration of a heavy bribe, consented to 
aid his vengeance. By woman's craft, or witch's 
wiles, Irene contrived to set the people of Aquileia 
all agog with their neighbours of the littoral, and at 
variance with one another, — so that their quarrels 
might screen an attack by the Huns. The enchant- 
ment entirely failed in its object, for Giovanni 
Anafesto and Sostinio Rinieri, — leaders at Aquileia 
of rival parties — joined hands to repel the invader. 
Irene, by the way, had fooled them both by crossing 
them in love. Whether mesmerised by the black 
art of the enchantress, or incited by personal jealousy 
the captains of Attila's host rose against him 
and against each other. Intrigue and counterplot 
divided the councils of the Hunnish chieftains. 
Nadasto, Attila's second in command, made court 
to Fulvia, — a lady of Altino — wife of his rival Aetis, 
and won over to his cause her beauteous young 
daughter, Idilia, whom Attila had tried to seduce. 

One evening, when the incantatrice Irene had 
cast her spell upon the Hunnish leader, and Ariana, 
her mystic-magic singer, had lulled him to slumber 
in his tent, and when Nadasto had bribed and 
rendered drunk the soldiers of his guard, Idilia stole 
silently through the darkness to the couch whereon 
Attila was heavily sleeping. Like Jael she hesitated 
not to make use of her opportunity to avenge her 

4 




CO < ^ 

O :- 5 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

wrong and aid her lover. Driving, with all the force 
of a strong desperate woman, the sword she found 
by the sleeper's side, she pierced Attila through the 
breast, and pinned his body to the bed-board be- 
neath. Thus died the " Scourge of God," — the 
ravisher of women — by a woman slain ! 

Not alone was heroic Adriana of Padua in deeds 
of woman-prowess, — Martza d'Aquileia, standing 
astride her husband's stricken body, his sword in her 
hand, hurled bold defiance and hardy blows together 
at her foes, until overborne by numbers she fell fight- 
ing to the last ! 

Degna too, of Aquileia, daughter of the Queen of 
Dalmatia, dignified and devoted matron that she 
was, her spouse and sons slaughtered before her 
eyes, took refuge with her young daughters within 
the gateway-tower, and thence threw down coping- 
stones and coals of fire upon the heads of their 
enemies. Short was that attack on woman's valour, 
for brawny arms and hands were soon stretched out 
to seize the brave defenders. Degna slew her 
children by dashing them to the ground, and she, 
fearless of death, followed them to preserve their 
honour and hers ! 

The skill and courage of the women of Veneto 
in the use of bow and arrow, and in the casting of 
the javelin, came to be the undoing of many a 
stalwart barbarian. The Huns were amazed at the 
heroism, no less than at the beauty, of their fair 
opponents. Those viragoes had in their veins the 
blood of Greek heroes, and their muscles were of 
iron like the Romans. Noble and bold in heart were 
they, vigorous and graceful in form and feature, and 
well dowered with mental capacity and resource. 

5 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Not once, but many a time, when the rope- 
hawsers, which worked the defenders' catapults, gave 
out and the defence seemed doomed to failure, the 
women and the girls of besieged towns cut off their 
tresses of strong, fine, lustrous hair, with which to 
weave new stout cords for the disabled machines ! 

Those were the women, who either stood 
shoulder-to-shoulder with their lords and masters to 
repel the hateful foemen, or, blessed with families 
of young children, fled for safety to the islets of the 
lagunes, there to guard them from all ill, and ready 
to lay down their lives in their defence. Among the 
fugitives men-folk were rare, — grandsires and men 
past service and lads just entering on their teens, — 
but the bones of the strongest and best lay bleach- 
ing and unburied upon the desolate plains of Veneto. 

This earliest settlement was a woman's common- 
wealth, and mothers and daughters nursed patiently 
a new generation. They inculcated lessons of 
faith and devotion and inspired their boy-offspring 
with energy and earnestness. Bereaved and com- 
fortless themselves they looked to Holy Church for 
consolation and direction. They listened, in their 
dreams, to the soothing voices of the Saints, and 
loved to tell sweet stories from tradition. Cells for 
holy men and women, released from the world, were 
fixed on every sandy beach ; and chapels, simple 
and primitive enough, called by tinkling bells, holy 
souls to Mass and vespers. Women prayed and 
children sang, till phoenix-like out of a cataclysm 
of tribulations, arose a new Venice — "Venezia 
Seconda." 

Generation followed generation, and family 
cohesion banded the scattered groups of islet 

6 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

dwellers together for mutual protection and defence. 
The terror of invasion by barbarians became old 
men s tales, and mothers scared their children to 
make them good with stories of the "Scourge of 
God." Many lads, now grown, went back to terra- 
firma, and rebuilt the homes of their grandparents, 
and married and settled there. 

One hundred years rolled along almost unevent> 
fully for " Venezia Seconda" and the dwellers upon 
her shores, but, at length, times of peace and com- 
parative prosperity were rudely disturbed by another 
fateful cry from the mountains ! 

Longobards, — Bavarians, Bulgarians, Swabians, 
and other mixed races, — were said to be pouring over 
the passes into Italy, and late in the autumn of 567, 
a mighty horde began to move over the plains 
marching ever southwards. Terror once more 
struck home to the hearts of the people of Veneto 
and of the islands of the lagunes. Were the 
horrors of the almost forgotten invasions of the 
Goths and Huns to be re-enacted ? What was to 
become of them, and their children ? 

The only reply was the old, old cry *' To the 
Lagunes ! " Altino led the way : her inhabitants 
were premonished by a startling apparition. The 
storks, which made their nests upon the roof-trees 
of the houses, suddenly began to circle round the 
city uttering shrill cries, then, darting down with 
one accord they picked up in their long bills 
their little fledgelings and made off right out to 
sea! 

The people looked on amazed, but when they 
noted that the birds stayed their flight over Torcello 
and her sister islets, they said one to another — 

7 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

*' This is a warning of Providence — which we must 
follow — it is the * finger of God ' ! " 

The Longobards, however, were not intent so 
much on conquest as on settlement. Tales of the 
fertility of the soil of Italy, and stories of the profit- 
able industries of her cities, had found their way to 
northern lands, and had excited, in the hearers, 
vehement desires to share such good things. They 
came not in serried ranks of warriors but in caravans 
in peaceful guise, with their household goods and 
chattels upon their waggons, and their old folk and 
little children securely mounted on the top. To 
them Veneto was the Land of Promise. 

If the peaceful inhabitants of the province were 
not slain as in the days of Alaric and Attila, they 
were scattered, for the Longobards meant to have 
and to hold what they seized. Dressed in skins of 
beasts, with linen tunics of many colours, loose 
breeches girded with leathern belts, and shod in 
wooden and metal sandals, they presented a marked 
contrast to the natives of Veneto. They shaved 
the back of their heads, but wore the hair low upon 
the foreheads with ringlets, and the men were 
bearded. 

Their conduct towards the people they had come 
to dispossess of lands and homes was marked by 
consideration, and they made an excellent impression 
by not meddling with matters ecclesiastical. Indeed 
so suave and gentle were they in their bearing that 
not a few of the less fearful maidens looked kindly 
upon the invaders, and not one but many brides of 
Veneto were mated to Longobard grooms ! Surely 
this was a rare exhibition of the old and world-wide 
sentiment — noblesse oblige ! A new and healthy 

8 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

strain was thus intermingled with blue Graeco- 
Roman blood, and, whereas, the citizens of the 
Eastern Empire, at large, dwindled and deteriorated, 
the men and women of ** Venezia Seconda" grew in 
numbers, strength, and comeliness. 

The Greek protection of Veneto and the lagunes 
was withdrawn in 641, and then at once it was 
borne in upon the elders of the families and the 
leaders in their councils that unbounded liberty was 
a dangerous expedient. Parliaments representative 
of every class — work-people, middle class, and 
patricians, — with the clergy at their head, were called 
together for deliberation and unity of action. 

If it is true — maybe it is — that each hundred 
years of a nation's development corresponds to a 
decade of human growth, then the Commonwealth 
of the islets of the lagunes attained its maturity in 
697 or thereabouts. The infant Venice, — nursed in 
her Malamocco cradle by her father and mother- 
land of Padua some two hundred years before, — was 
now a vigorous maiden and of age. 

Her sponsors, wisely chosen, one from each of 
twelve most important settlements, who had exer- 
cised their tribuneship to good account, forgathered 
at Eraclea to elect a worthy guardian of the State, 
a leader— ''Dux," '' Doxe " or ''Doge" of the 
Venetians. Some of them were Veneto-Greeks, 
like the Partecipazi and the Michieli, and some of 
them were Veneto- Romans, like the Candiani and 
the Orseoli, with rivalries, domestic and political to 
unite and disunite them, but all were fired with the 
new idea of mutual life and independence. 

From every lido and riva came barca and 
gondola, gaily dressed with flowers and greenery : 

9 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

the helm held stoutly by men — brave as they were 
wise, whilst at the prow, beauty and youth sang 
tuneful melodies. Well - stored with food and 
delicacies were those festal ofallevs, for their crews 
were bent on pleasure as well as business. Matron 
and maid in holiday attire accompanied their lords 
and sweethearts to the solemn happy ceremonial — it 
was a domestic celebration in simple homely state. 

Where manlv streno^h and wisdom make of life 
a scene of wear and tear ungarnished and iin- 
charm.ed by women's ways, true femininity interven- 
ing administers juice of grapes to gladden man's 
heart, and oil of olives to make him of a cheerful 
countenance, — so to paraphrase the holy psalmist. 
At Eraclea o^race and force embraced one another. 

The women and the crirls of the islands brouo^ht 
with them to Eraclea armfuls of sea-pinks and 
sprays of jessamine, red poppies and yellow flags, 
fragrant orano-e flowers and the sweet bavs of 
myrtle, gathered from their gardens. They wove 
gay garlands with the tenacious dune rushes and 
coiled them about with the tendrils of the vine. 
Every street shrine in Eraclea. every \^irgin ikon in 
her modest homes, was adorned with floral oflerinors, 
and the altars of her sanctuaries were covered with 
pure white fragrant ^lary lilies. 

The twelve electors held their parliament in the 
modest basilica and cast their votes in secret, but 
all were satisfied when Paolo Lucio Anafesto of 
Aquileia was hailed as the first of Venice Doges — 
judge, general, and pope combined. 

Promptly the Patriarch of Grado blessed the 
new Head of the State, and the twelve electors 
joined in crowning him with the " Corno' — the 

lO 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

horned Phrygian bonnet of renown and liberty. 
The day's solemnities performed all held picnic in 
the woods ; Eraclea kept open house. Night fell 
all too soon and lines of gaily-lighted gondolas made 
off to homes across the phosphorescent waves and 
the summer moon smiled upon a scene of perfect 
peace and content. 

Alas for the stability of mundane matters — two 
short years were scarcely spent when Doge Anafesto 
met with his death, lamentably enough, in a con- 
flict between the citizens of Eraclea and Jesolo. 
This was a calamity, perhaps, rare in Venetian 
history, for, if Martino Sanudo, the quaint and 
voluminous chronicler, may be believed: — "The 
inhabitants of Venezia were a lowly peaceful people, 
esteeming love and mercy highly, and above all 
religious — they cared not for honours but were ever 
ready to help one another, regardless of class and 
station." 

Three Doges only ruled at Eraclea, and then in 
742 the seat of the Government was removed to 
Malamocco as being less open to attack, and more 
favourably placed for the development of trade with 
the east. The Doge was elected for life and his 
family, if of plebeian origin, ennobled : his wife how- 
ever had no precedence and was regarded pretty 
much as one of her spouse's goods and chattels. 

The citizens of the Commonwealth enjoyed a 
lengthy period of peace and prosperity, during 
which they were building up a national and self- 
reliant character. Men, women, and children 
gained urbanity and repose of manners, and were 
animated alike by vivacity and gravity of bearing. 
The women especially were remarkable for their 

II 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

good-breeding and refinement — vulgarity and pre- 
tence were non-apparent. As mothers they had a 
softening yet wholesome influence upon their 
families and households. Many Latin writers 
have noted these feminine characteristics. 

In matters of dress and personal adornment the 
^entildonne followed more closely than their humbler 
sisters the Greek modes. The mosaics at San 
Marco's show that velvets and brocades were worn 
with handsome furs and folds of lace. Blue was 
the favourite colour with all classes — a cerulean tint, 
like the reflection of the azure skies in the still 
waters of the lagunes. 

When Charlemagne came to Friuli to hunt big 
game in 776, he made friends with the heads of 
noble Venetian families, and adopted their more 
graceful garments in lieu of his semi-savage state. 
He had set his heart upon seeing Venice and 
seizing what he could of her outlying islets. Her 
romantic story appealed strongly to his imagination 
and he even made proposals that Prankish brides 
should find their way to the lagunes. His ideas 
were actually adapted in the dogado of Obelario 
Antenorio (804-809), for his consort was a Frank 
princess. 

The Franks shared the sporting instincts of the 
Venetians and they were emulous of the boasts of 
the men of Venice : — " One can catch more fish in 
a month in the lagunes than in a whole year in all 
the Mediterranean ! ", and, " One can entrap more 
birds at Malamocco than anywhere else in Italy ! " 
Grebe - shooting was a favourite pastime, and 
ladies entered into the sport quite as enthusiastically 
as their lords. Cross-bows and clay pellets were 

12 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

the weapons, snaring was barred as unsportsmanlike, 
and heads were nailed on barn doors as trophies. 

Whilst Charlemagne and his courtiers were 
pleased to meet the Venetians, in sport, or when on 
marriage bent, he and they never quite concealed 
their designs upon the lagunes ; but the monarch's 
chagrin was bitter when he was forced to admit the 
impossibility of success. '* As my brand sinks out 
of sight, nor ever shall appear to me again, so let 
all thoughts of seizing Venice vanish from my will," 
— he once exclaimed, as, standing upon his royal 
galley off the coast of Padua, he cast his sword far, 
far away, out into the sea ! 

The first actual Dogaressa — not merely the wife 
of the Doge, but the First Lady in Venice and his 
official consort, was a Frenchwoman — the Countess 
Carola, — a lady of honour at the Court of Aix-la- 
Chapelle. Obelario Antenorio and his brother 
Beato, who was associated with him in the dogado, 
were the guests of Charlemagne at Aix, and there 
the Doge saw and wooed his bride. How they got 
there nobody knows : it w^as a stupendous journey 
in those days. Perhaps fortune favoured Obelario 
and Beato and brought the maiden in the suite of the 
Empress into Southern France to Aix in Provence ! 
The Emperor approved the match and promised his 
friendship and protection for the island Republic. 

Carola was a woman of great energy of character,, 
remarkable for the exercise of a strong will, and 
endowed with the faculty of attracting respect and 
obedience. She had a difficult role, for the ladies 
of Venice resented the introduction of a French- 
woman as consort of their Doge. 

Beato Antenorio, it appears, played a double 
13 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

part, for whilst acting as best man to his brother 
and paying court to Countess Carola, he was 
negotiating with the Emperor at Constantinople 
for a union with a Byzantine princess with a view 
to supplant the Doge and Dogaressa. 

Carola very soon took the measure of Beato's 
perfidy, and when he brought his imperial bride to 
Venice, she adroitly placed Valentino, her husband's 
youngest brother, an attractive youth, in the young 
girl's way. There was little love lost between 
Beato and Cassandra, and the brothers very soon 
became estranged, and thus the Dogaressa held her 
own triumphantly. The story goes however that, 
consistent with woman's ever changing mood, 
having set Beato against his wife, the Dogaressa 
became her rival in the affections of Valentino. 

Perhaps the Venetian saying was true of her in 
a very special way : — '' El segreto dele femene no lo 
sa nessun altro che mi e vu, e tuto il coTfiniMn I " — 
*' A woman's secret is known to none save me, and 
you, and all the town ! " 

Obelario Antenorio, who had been Tribune of 
Malamocco, was " an indolent man, irresolute and 
faithless." When a Greek fleet approached the 
lagunes with peaceful intentions, but viewed by the 
Doge as supporting the pretensions of Beato, he 
had recourse to the French Court for assistance. 
This was regarded by the Greeks as an hostile act, 
and they attacked and destroyed Eraclea, Jesolo, 
Fossone, Chioggia, and other Venetian ports. The 
chief men of Venice were slain or taken captive, 
and Obelario and Beato Antenorio were carried 
away as hostages to Constantinople, where they and 
their wives, Carola and Cassandra, died. 

14 



The Dogaressas of Venice 



II 



The first ** Grand " Doge and Founder of Venice 
was Agnello Badoero, better known perhaps to 
historians by his Greek title ''Ipato" or " Pro- 
tospataro," — in the Rialto vernacular Partecipazio. 
The Badoeri, originally from Padua and one of the 
twelve premier families of the Commonwealth, were 
descended from Giovanni d'Eraclea, who was among 
the twelve Tribunes voting at the election of Paolo 
Lucio Anafesto as first Doge of the Lagunes in 697. 

Agnello was Tribune of Malamocco, although a 
native of Eraclea, a man of many parts, he exhibited 
remarkable talents in almost every walk of life. 
A Greek of the Greeks by descent, he was a pro- 
nounced humanist in the school of Plato. A born 
legislator, he was by inclination an engineer and 
builder, and excelled his peers in mercantile industry 
and political acumen. 

Long before he was called to the supreme office 
of Doge he had fixed ideas about, and matured plans 
for, the conservation and development of the condi- 
tions of the islands of the Lagunes. Immediately 
after his election in 810, he broke with the traditions 
of the dogado, by removing the seat of Government 
to Rivo-Alto as being far and away a more con- 
venient centre and at the same being much more 
secure from the attacks of enemies. Already there 
was a considerable population in the new capital and 
churches and houses of some importance had been 
erected — many of them of stone. 

AH the same the ordinary Rivo-Alto dwellings 
were of modest dimensions and few rose beyond one 

15 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

storey In height. A marked feature of them all was 
the outside staircase, which gave access to the living 
rooms, and also led directly to the altana or look-out 
tower upon the flat roof. They were furnished with 
a solario or liago — an open balcony whereupon the 
inmates could sit and take the air and hold chit-chats 
with their friends. 

Upon the flat roof the women of the household 
performed their toilet, combing out their hair and 
exposing it to the sunshine. Various domestic 
duties also were transacted upon the ''sun-traps," 
for example newly-washed linen bleached nowhere 
as effectively as there. Bedrooms occupied the 
upper part, and the plan of the ground floor provided 
kitchens and offices with rooms for meals and the 
reception of guests. These, in the large structures, 
were arranged upon three sides of a square forming 
a courtyard or garden patch. 

Such a habitation was occupied by Doge Agnello 
and Dogaressa Elena with their growing family. 
It was situated upon what was subsequently known 
as the Camplello della Cason, adjoining the ancient 
church SS. Apostoll, and facing towards the neigh- 
bouring island of Murano, just where a small canal, 
the Rio Hadran, entered the Lagune. The princi- 
pal entrance was In Calle della Cason with a postern 
at the corner for observation and defence. At the 
back, giving on a narrow back lane, was another 
doorway which led to a small garden and an 
orchard. 

Donna Elena occupied herself in cultivating 
*' simples " and sweet-smelling flowers, without which 
no Venetian considered his home complete. Per- 
haps no people set greater store by fragrant flowers 

i6 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

and succulent herbs than did those Venetian children 
of the sea-mists and salt-sands. The simplest bloom 
that the saline breeze allowed to grow was as precious 
as the most luxuriant rambler-rose, or flowering 
laurel. Vines grew everywhere and throve amaz- 
ingly, and everybody had a floral or arboreal 
hobby. 

Having established himself in his primitive 
palace, Doge Agnello set to work to carry out his 
ideas of utility and expansion. First of all, in view 
of the many inroads of ruthless invaders into 
Veneto, he turned his attention to the strengthening 
of the defences of the islands. Strong cables were 
slung across the narrower channels, disused hulks 
of vessels were sunk in the deeper water-ways, and 
a system of signals by day and of beacons by night 
was established. 

The chief life's work of the sapient Head of the 
State was the protection of the low-lying lidi from 
floods and denudation. Thousands and thousands 
of great timber balks from the Pineta of Ravenna 
were secured and driven far down into the yielding 
mud and sand. From pile to pile was woven a 
basket-work of unbreakable osiers, and then the 
pumping out of needless channels and the draining 
of wet marsh-lands was followed by the sinking of 
innumerable loads of solid earth and gravel, until 
the reclaimed areas assumed something of the 
appearance and consistency of terra-firma. 

With such primitive appliances as were at hand, 
the success achieved was little short of marvellous. 
To his new-made plots of land Doge Agnello gave 
the name of '' Fondamentir To Rivo-Alto as the 
centre of his plan, he connected all the neighbouring 
B 17 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

islands by throwing across the water-ways wooden 
bridges, — thus Venice assumed her present form. 

Well may we, in imagination, behold the noble- 
hearted Doge, habited in simple guise and grey- 
bearded, yet, vigorous of frame with eagle eyes and 
iirm set brow and mouth, ferried day by day, over 
the Grand Canal, — the actual channel of the river 
which Livy calls Prse-altus. To the fondamento 
of San Giacomo — that earliest holy shrine of the 
Venetian fugitives he is bound, there to superintend 
the works he has initiated. With plans in hand, 
elaborated with Grecian geometrical precision, he 
watches and directs the work-people, both men and 
women — at their toil. No master was more solicit- 
ous for the welfare of his working people than Doge 
Agnello Badoero. 

Much of her time the Dogaressa spent with her 
husband on the fondamento, where her presence 
cheered him. Thickly veiled, as was the custom 
of good women, and modestly attired she moved 
among the women workers, pouring out sympathy 
and affording relief. 

The crowning labour of Doge Agnello Badoero, 
so far as the building of Venice was concerned, was 
the erection of the Ducal Palace in 820. This was 
purely Byzantine in design, very large, and built of 
rare marbles and mosaics: "II Palazzo" it was 
called, for there was nothing like it in new Venice, 
or at Eraclea. Probably it resembled in some 
respects the Fondaco de Turchi built at the same 
period and by the same master-builder — Doge 
Agnello. Unhappily nothing now remains of this 
earliest official residence of the Doges of Rialto. 
Francesco Donato has painted in a few words 
18 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

the character of Doge Agnello Badoero : — *' He 
rose," he says, " easily above all parties, a man 
very stable and dependable, a true Catholic, upright 
and devoted to the true interests of the Common- 
wealth." This encomium assuredly was deserved 
by Dogaressa Elena as well. 

The times were strenuous and many an one, 
weary of the toil of the world and yearning for the 
consolation of religion was irresistibly drawn to 
assume the habit of the monastery. Men and 
women of worth became founders of religious houses 
and, among them. Doge Agnello and Dogaressa 
Elena, who with their eldest son Giustiniano, built 
the monasteries of Sant' Ilario and San Zaccaria. 
This they did as the Codice Trevisiano records, 
''revelatione Domini Omnipotentis." 

Following the example of his predecessors in 
the dogado Doge Agnello Badoero, towards the 
end of his life, associated his two eldest sons 
Giustiniano and Giovanni with himself in the 
direction in the affairs of State. The two young 
men had been carefully trained for the duties of 
government by their father, and by their mother, 
in the observances of religion and the exercise of 
moralities. 

Doge Agnello died in 827, and his two sons 
were elected to succeed him. No record is pre- 
served concerning the death of the good Dogaressa. 
Probably they were both buried in the church of 
San Zaccaria. 

The example of Doge Agnello and Dogaressa 
Elena, with respect to the daily exercise of religion, 
was followed by their sons, their wives and families. 
Mass always found them in attendance. Every 

19 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

day at dawn the Marangojia or Mass-bell awoke the 
slumbering citizens, and again at midday, and at 
dusk were the faithful summoned to devotion. 
With singular simplicity the pious sons and 
daughters of Venice served their God and served 
their city in the best way they could : none were 
hypocrites. 

The brief and quiet reign of Giustiniano Badoero 
was remarkable for one eminent event — the transla- 
tion of the body of Saint Mark the Evangelist, 
from Alexandria to Venice. 

The pious Venetians were well aware of the 
importance of possession of relics of the Saints. At 
Aquileia, Eraclea, Padua and the other cities, 
whence their forebears had fled to the islets of the 
lagunes, the churches were the depositories of such 
treasures, and the revenues of the ecclesiastical 
authorities w^ere greatly augmented by the devotion 
of the religiously minded inhabitants. Besides, 
such holy shrines drew pilgrims and visitors from 
other states and so enhanced their reputation. A 
quotation from the Zancarol Chronicle in the Library 
of San Marco, exactly expresses the current idea : 
— ''La qual citade e stada hedificada da veri e boni 
Cristianir 

Venetian envoys to Constantinople and travellers 
generally in the Orient were admonished to secure 
if possible relics for translation to the lagune city. 
Accordingly in 828 news reached Venice that two 
sea captains of Venetian merchant galleys, winter- 
ing in the port of Alexandria, had entered into 
relations with the ruler of the city. On their part 
they were to smuggle arms and provisions for the 
use of the Egyptian forces against the Eastern 

20 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Emperor, and in exchange to take whatever they 
might like from ruined temples near the sea-shore, — 
one was the traditional burial-place of the second 
Evangelist. 

Treasures of all sorts were unearthed, and, at 
length, the tomb of the Saint yielded up a corpse 
undecayed and arrayed in episcopal vestments. 
Acknowledged and venerated upon the spot the 
hallowed remains were reverently conveyed to 
Venice, and received there with tumultuous ac- 
clamations and temporarily enshrined within the 
ancient church of San Pietro di Castello. 

Doge Giustiniano and Dogaressa Felicita pre- 
sided at the religious ceremonies, which brought 
together and cemented the people of the outly- 
ing islands and the inhabitants of the coast towns 
of terra-firma. Religious fervour overspread all 
Venice, men and women surrendered themselves, 
their children, and their goods, in honour of the 
Saint, who then and there was hailed one of the 
patrons of Venice, sharing the distinction with St Mary 
the Virgin, St Teodoro, and St Giustina of Padua. 

That must have been a busy time for the 
Dogaressa and her ladies, and, indeed, for all the 
well-disposed women-folk of Venice. There were 
rich hangings to embroider, fine linen to weave and 
stitch, delicate lace to fret out, flowers to arrange, 
and sweet odours to confection. For St Mark 
nothing was spared, and even the poorest of the 
poor put on the best attire she could obtain and 
made festival with her richer sisters. 

Not content with the splendours of the day of 
translation, the last day of January was for ever set 
apart as an annual festival in honour of St Mark ; 

21 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

and with it was associated the ancient and beautiful 
custom of public marriage upon the Eve of the 
Feast of the Purification. 

Giustlnlano Badoero very soon wearied of the 
responsibilities of office and retired, with Donna 
Feliclta his wife Into the cloister of San Servilio, 
which he had enriched by gifts of lands near the 
coast city of Abondia Vigilla. 

To the third Doge of the Badoero family, 
Giovanni, second son of the ''Grand Agnello," 
belongs the glory of founding '' the most resplendent 
Christian shrine In Europe," San Marco dl Venezia. 
He succeeded his brother as sole Doge in 829. 
What special part he and his Dogaressa took In 
the actual building and first dedicatory celebration, 
history has not recorded. 

The reign of Giovanni Badoero lasted seven 
years — a season of consolidation of Venetian power 
and also of family Influence. The house of Parte- 
cipazio gave seven Doges to Venice, — men of 
approved probity, ruling their households and them- 
selves with simple dignity, and the State with firm- 
ness and distinction. 

They one and all, with their consorts, when 
public cares and duties became excessive, sought 
the solace of the cloister. What a very sensible 
custom was this, and how conducive to efficiency in 
the service of the State, and withal how Indicative 
of the influence of the Church in human affairs ! 

Women and girls in the times of the first three 
Badoeri Doges were treated less harshly than they 
had been In earlier days, but still they were under 
restrictions which were almost Oriental In character. 
Their men-folk professed themselves jealous of the 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

family honour and were eager to uphold their 
autocratic rights over their own households against 
all intruders. 

In public women were veiled, — matrons in black, 
maidens in white, — except upon festivals, which 
happily, for the sake of dear Prince Cupid, were 
frequent enough, when they were allowed to appear 
at church, on the Piazza, and in barca or gondola 
uncovered, — these were lovers' opportunities ! 

When a youth had become familiar with the 
form and carriage of a girl, and was taken there- 
with, he was wont to haunt the neighbourhood of 
her father's house, in order to get a good look at 
her features and expression when she came out. If 
the opinion he had formed was confirmed then he 
was accustomed of a night to stand beneath the 
iron-barred window of his innamorata, and there 
breathe out his love ditty, or twang amorously the 
strings of his guitar. 

If the girl responded to the youth's ecstasy, she 
was permitted to flash a light through the open 
shutter. The repetition of this signal was an in- 
timation that the wooer might address himself to 
her father, requesting acceptance as a ''novice in 
the form and art of love-making." 

The father's consent was regarded as the first 
step of the betrothal, and then the happy young 
couple were required to await the festal day of good 
San Marco, for the public acknowledgment of the 
suit. Liberty was meanwhile allowed for interviews^ 
and negotiations were put on foot with respect to 
equality of family and amount of dowry, etc. 

The girl dressed simply in white was permitted 
to receive visits from her lover and his young com- 

23 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

panions. Upon the eve of the festival when many 
friends were assembled, serious and gay, the bride- 
groom-elect took his bride's hand in his and slipped 
upon her finger a ring, — -penge they called it, — as 
a pledge of his honourable intentions. The girl 
immediately withdrew with her mother, whilst the 
guests were feasted. 

Nobody went to bed that night, for there was 
much to be done in preparation for the morrow's 
nuptials. The bride had to be bathed and her hair 
plaited in two great coils, her dress and her orna- 
ments had to be arranged, and finishing touches put 
to the festal decorations of the house. 

Attendance at early Mass was de rigueur. and 
then the bride, covered with a lace or fine net veil 
knelt to receive her father's blessing, and at the 
same time she had placed in her hands by her two 
sponsors — the most estimable and influential of her 
father's acquaintances — a casket or purse, in which 
was deposited her dowry. These receptacles were 
called arcella and were objects of considerable value 
from an artistic point of view. If caskets they were 
of embossed silver, or carved wood, or painted by 
hand, and if they took the form of purses they 
were of the richest material, very beautifully em- 
broidered, and often enough ornamented with pearls 
and precious stones. 

A procession was formed of gaily-decorated 
gondolas with the wedding guests — the bride's con- 
tained herself, and her father with her sponsors, and 
bore silken streamers of blue and white with two 
captive white doves at the prow ; and all made for 
the island cathedral of San Pietro di Castello. 

The bride bearing her a7'cella suspended from 
24 




o 

dg 

< . 

CO O 

O N 

o 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

her neck by a blue silk ribbon knelt by her father's 
side before the Bishop, and then the groom, ushered 
by his witnesses, took his place at her right hand 
offering the wedding-ring for the episcopal benedic- 
tion. Removing thepen^-e, — which he slipped upon 
his own finger, — he replaced it with the golden hoop 
of matrimony. Lighted candles were placed in the 
hands of the couple, whilst the Bishop blessed their 
union. An offering in their behalf is made by the 
bridegroom's next friend, and the religious ceremony 
ended with the singing of a marriage ode. 

A merry, happy party betook themselves one 
and all to the fleet of gala gondolas, scattering on 
their way sweetmeats and small current coins, among 
the bystanders. A banquet with dancing and sing- 
ing filled the afternoon and, at dark, the minstrel 
band led the newly-married pair to the bridegroom's 
brilliantly lighted house. 

The best man held a position of importance, he 
it was who found the beverages for the guests, 
toasted the nuptial couple, and gave drink and 
money all round. Early in the morning following 
the marriage he repaired to the nuptial chamber, 
and knocking loudly at the door, offered the happy 
spouse two fresh-laid eggs, — often enough stained 
and painted exquisitely, — and a casket of aromatic 
pastilles — tokens of good wishes for marital felicity. 
The bride's girl friends too laid beside the door 
little wicker-work baskets beautifully trimmed with 
silk and decorated with fresh flowers, and full of 
delicious sweetmeats and fresh fruit — emblematic 
again of what married life should ever be. Such 
were some of the pretty wedding observances in old 
Venice. 

25 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

One of the prettiest of the many charming- 
customs, which illustrate so delightfully the ever- 
fascinating story of Venice, — "the Venus City of 
the Adriatic," — was the annual presentation of the 
boccola — the rose nosegay of San Marco. For its 
origin we must hie us back to a very distant century 
— the ninth. 

Doge Orso Badoero, grandson of the " Grand" 
Doge Agnello Partecipazio, had a lovely only 
daughter, Maria was her name in baptism, but, by 
reason of the ardent flashes of her brilliant jet-black 
eyes she was known as Vulcana — '' Vulcana of the 
black eyes ! " Then one day, there came from far 
Provence a handsome troubadour with his light 
guitar. He was called Tancred — a child of chance 
as it appears ; and he sang outside the dark-eyed 
beauty's iron-barred window the doughty deeds of 
knightly prowess and the conquering charms of 
maiden troth. 

Prince Cupid set to work, as busy as could be, 
and began to shoot his love-dipped arrows up and 
down, till he had transfixed both Vulcana and 
Tancredo. Alas ! the maiden knew full well her 
father would never listen to the plea of a simple 
singing youth, and so she wept and sighed, and 
sighed and wept ! 

''Go, gentle minstrel," she cried, "tarry not, 
seek the Court of the King of France, and clothe 
thyself with the glory of martial renown, I, thy 
Maria, will wait for thee ! " 

With a tender embrace, and the maiden's thin 
gauze scarf for guerdon tied round his arm, the 
troubadour set off to fight the Moors. 

Seasons came and seasons went and beauteous 
26 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Maria Vulcana upon the altana of her father's palace 
scanned in vain the wide lagune for signs of the 
warrior's return. " Will Tancredo never come 
back ?" she asked herself, and she wept and yearned 
for him. At last rumours of bold adventure and the 
names of many goodly knights were banded from 
tongue to tongue. The dreaded Moors had been 
vanquished, and the hero of the fights was a youth- 
ful soldier of fortune one Tancredo of Provence ! 

Well-a-day, an embassy presently arrived in 
Venice from great Charlemagne, its leader was Sir 
Roland the Invincible. He sought here and there 
for Maria Badoero the Doge's weeping daughter, 
but she never showed herself — her heart was with 
Tancredo — she cared for none beside. At length 
they met and Roland bending over her, sighing, 
said, '' Lady fair, I kiss thy hand for brave Tancredo, 
and bid thee weep no more for him, he died in these 
arms of mine breathing out thy name, — see he bid 
me with his last words give thee this red rosebud, 
which he had plucked for thee, saying, ' Bid her 
pray for me always.' " 

Maria was silent, she paled, her heart gave no 
more than one big throb, as she placed the pledge 
of her Tancredo's love between her breasts, and 
then she laid her down and died ! 

This is the '' Legend of the Boccola." 

The day that heart-broken Maria Vulcana 
breathed her last was the name-day of Saint Mark 
the Evangelist, 25th April. Thereafter every love- 
lorn lad in the islets of the lagunes offered to the 
girl he loved best a freshly gathered red rosebud as 
a fragrant pledge of his devotions. The innamorate 
were accustomed to place the sweet tokens in their 

27 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

open bosoms, as did the beauteous but unhappy- 
maiden of old times, and proudly wear it all that 
livelong day. Sometimes to be sure, the girl 
rejected her admirer's tender gift, but she who could 
show no rosebud in her bosom suffered mighty heart- 
burns all the same, and her girl companions and the 
young men of her acquaintance looked askance at 
her. 

At the sounding of the curfew all were safe of 
course indoors, and then the simple offering, withered 
as it was, was taken lovingly between both the 
maiden's hands, caressed affectionately, and placed 
in the most secret hiding-place she had. It might 
be a long, or it might be a little, while before her 
parents acknowledged the successful suitor ; but that 
frail blossom of early summer never lost its fragrance, 
and many a dewdrop of a tear fell upon the faded 
petals, whilst the loved one waited impatiently for 
the next Festa delle Marie. 



Ill 



Perhaps the proudest of all the proud families of 
old Venice was that of the Candiani — an offshoot 
of the ruling clan of Sanudi, in ancient times in 
Padua. Their name they derived from the village 
whence they sprang, just outside the proud city, — 
Candiana. In the eighth and ninth centuries, as 
Counts of the Western Empire, they ruled over 
Padua and Vicenza and were endowed with lands 
and titles by Otto I. 

The first member of the family to wear the ducal 
bonnet was Pietro, the descendant of an earlier 

28 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Pietro, who, in 697 was one of the twelve electors 
of the first Doge, Paolo Lucio Anafesto. His 
election in 886 was due, in a considerable measure, 
to the extreme youth of Doge Giovanni Badoero's 
son Orso, but especially in view of the need of a 
strong man to deal with the incipient feuds of the 
rival families of the Polani, Giustiniani, and Barozzi, 
and the Burbolani, Iscoli, and Selvi. Doge Pietro 
was a man of war, he led twelve armed galleys 
against his city's constant foes, the pirates of the 
coasts of I stria and Dalmatia, and died at sea after 
one short year of office. 

His son and grandson, both Pietro, were sand- 
wiched between Orso Badoero H. and Pietro 
Badoero, — so keen was the rivalry and so equal the 
opportunities of the two families. All four, with 
their consorts, were conspicuous for their devotion 
to their public duties and for their piety. Daily 
they attended Mass and evening devotions, and 
observed frugality in dress and table. 

Pietro Candiano HI. married Archielda or 
Richielda, who brought him neither dowry nor 
social distinction. Who she was nobody has 
recorded, probably she was the child of one of the 
Slav women who were brought captive to Venice 
in 887, by the expedition, which destroyed the nests 
of Narentian pirates in the Adriatic, under Pietro 
Candiano I. 

All we seem to know about the Dogaressa 
Archielda is that, when her consort died, she 
according to Venetian rule, was cloistered. Doubt- 
less she suffered much when her son Pietro raised 
a party against his father. 

One other son of Archielda is named by Dandolo 
29 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

the chronicler, Domenigo, who became Bishop of 
Torcello. She survived her husband many years, 
under whose will she inherited a rich vineyard and 
a dwelling-house in the marches of Veneto, which 
she seems to have passed over to the nuns of San 
Zaccaria. 

The name of Pietro Candiano III. has come 
down to us in gracious valiant guise. It was the 
Feast of the Purification in the year 944, and the 
*' Brides of Venice " were kneeling before the Bishop 
in the church of San Pietro di Castello. The Doge 
and Dogaressa, and their household were assisting 
at the ceremony, when, suddenly wild figures of 
daring buccaneers from Trieste dashed into the 
sacred building. Robbery not rape was their 
primary intention, for the maidens' arcelle were well 
worth the risk the robbers ran. The girls held 
tightly to their dowries, and so they were borne off 
bodily by their captors, arcelle and all ! 

Recoverincr from their consternation the men- 

o 

folk of the congregation and the hangers-on outside 
laid hands on weapons, tools and anything, and 
were swiftly on the heels of the ravishers. Luckily 
the barcas of the Guild of Marriage- chest makers 
were moored in the canal, and so available 
for use. 

Doge Pietro, divesting himself of his State 
mantle, and girding on his sword, headed the 
pursuers. Calling on Heaven for vengeance he 
boarded the foremost boat and bade every armed 
man to follow : it was the barca of Andrea de' 
Cappelli of t\iQ fondamento of Santa Maria Formosa, 
— the quarter of the makers of hats. He was one of 
the bridegrooms-elect, and, mad with rage, he and 

30 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

his companions swore to be avenged and to bring 
back their brides to Venice. 

That was a stern chase to be sure, the robbers 
rowed their hardest, and the lovers of the '' Brides " 
bent to their sweeps with all their wind and thew. 
Not till the pirates had crossed the Caorle lagune 
did Andrea de' Cappelli's boat grapple with the 
quarry. Then it was a fight hand-to-hand, pole-to- 
pole, — but at last, Andrea, leaping into the batello of 
the pirate chief struck the villain down, and gathered 
to his breast his fainting bedraggled bride. Bearing 
her light form under his left arm he neatly beheaded 
his enemy and, holding aloft the gory trophy, 
regained his boat. 

Victory, — as by well-bound convention, — crowned 
virtue, and back to Venice rowed swiftly the proud 
flotilla — the happy maidens waving aloft their bridal 
veils in token of their deliverance. Landing at the 
campo of Santa Maria Formosa all entered the 
sacred edifice, hard by, where the clergy sang "■ Te 
Deum. " The assembly broke up hilariously to spend 
the evening in universal merriment. 

Coming out of the church the Master of the 
Guild of Hat-Makers requested a favour of the 
Doge, — by whose side walked the motherly figure of 
the Dogaressa, her face radiant with smiles, — namely 
that an annual commemoration of the gallant rescue 
of the '' Brides of Venice " should be instituted 
whereat the Doge and Dogaressa should preside. 

Dandolo gives an amusing account of the 
interview : — 

"• But if it rains ? " asked Doge Candiano. 

** Why, we will give you hats to cover you ! " 

" And if we come hungry ? " 
31 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

"Well then you shall have the finest catch of 
fish and the sweetest basket of fruit." 

" But if we are thirsty too ? " 

"We will refresh vou with the best vintao'e we 
possess I " 

And so it came to pass. Every year the Doge 
and Doo^aressa, with all their households and the 
members of the Grand Council, paid a ceremonial 
visit to Santa Maria Formosa. Each di^nitarv 
received a brand-new straw hat, — richlv crilt and 
decorated with tiowers. a flask of finest ^Nlalvaoforia, 
— ruddy and rare, and a silver fish with a golden 
orange apiece. This is the origin of the Festa delle 
jMarie. 

The superb painting which adorns the first 
altar of the right aisle at Santa Maria Formosa — 
Palma Vecchio's <:/z^_/ ^^?^^'r^, and entitled "Santa 
Barbara." may well have been inspired by the story 
of the "Brides."' She is the patroness of the 
brave — and the old adacre — "None but the brave 
deserve the fair "' never had a fuller vindication than 
on that memorable day of the rape of the Venetian 
brides. 

Candiano III. had a son — his second, the stormy 
petrel of his race, the vulture of his family. In 959 
Pietro Candiano I.V. declared his father incapable 
of reiofninor, and with the utmost effronterv, he 
assumed the ducal bonnet and estate, apparently no 
man savinor him nav. Alas 1 How soon noble deeds 
are forgotten, how easily the knee is bent to the 
supplanter ! 

The ofood old Dos^e and Doearessa were ousted 

C5 C? C5 

from the ducal palace, and the usurper dared to 
introduce therein the giddy woman with whom he 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

cohabited. This was such a glaring scandal that he 
was obliged to bow to public opinion and put away 
Giovanniccia — a divorcee, whom he had picked up 
clandestinely, defying her quondam husband. 

No woman of high degree, no gentildonnay 
would cross the threshold of the palace so long as 
the Doge kept his mistress there, none greeted her 
upon the Piazza — and she became an object of scorn 
and derision. At length Pietro yielded to the 
popular feeling, and fascinating if corrupt, Giovan- 
niccia was compelled to take the vow of chastity 
and to enter the noble convent of San Zaccaria, — 
the refuge of widowed and discredited Dogaressas. 

In the Museo Civico, in Venice, is an ancient 
pack of playing-cards with illustrations of some of 
the earlier Dogaressas. The Four of Hearts has a 
representation of Giovanniccia Candiano with a 
ventilinOy — a fan, in her hand, and accompanied by 
the following legend: — "Giovanniccia, wife of 
Pietro Candiano, divorced, being able to avenge 
herself did not do it, so, her husband being slain by 
the people, she would not survive — ' If I am not 
the spouse of Ulysses I am Death's ' ! " 

The chronicler, Pietro Diacono, adds that the 
repudiated Giovanniccia disowned her child, Vitale, 
and left the little fellow to be fostered by a serving- 
woman who subsequently placed him in a monastery 
school. This Vitale Candiano, in 987, was conse- 
crated Bishop of Aquileia, and a few years later was 
translated to the Patriarchal See of Grado, where he 
ended his days — the last of his family, — in 1018. 

No sooner had Pietro Candiano divorced his 
adulterous wife than the Emperor Otto III. stepped 
in and gave him the hand, if not the heart, of 
c 33 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Gualdrada — Valdrada in Venetian — the young sister 
of Ugo il Grande, Marquis of Tuscany, of whom 
Dante speaks thus in his '' Paradiso,'' Canto XVI. : — 

" The great Baron, he whose name and worth 
The festival of Thomas still recalls." 

Ugo's granddaughter was the famous Countess 
Matilda, the virile ruler of all Tuscany and the 
beneficent foundress of the liberties of Florence. 

Countess Valdrada brought to her ducal husband 
as rich a dowry as any of the royal brides of Venice 
had brought. Estates at Trivigiano, Friuli, Ferrara, 
and Adria, with castles and well-trained retainers ; 
a host of slaves, and money-bags well filled with 
gold, enriched and ennobled proud Pietro Candiano. 

At her betrothal a custom entirely new to the 
Venetians was introduced, the so-called '' Morgen- 
cap" or " Mundio " whereby the Doge conferred a 
fourth part of his private income upon his consort. 
Never stepped upon the Piazzetta a prouder 
Dogaressa. Had she been own daughter of the 
Emperor she could not have borne herself more 
haughtily, nor have treated both her husband and 
his suite more disdainfully. The acclamations of the 
populace she treated with ill- concealed contempt and 
turned to ridicule the decorations in her honour. 

The Venetians were to a man noted for their 
self-esteem and high bearing and the keynote of their 
character was a spirit of proud and contemptuous 
isolation, but they regarded this display of feminine 
arrogance with annoyance and disgust. To add to 
the unfavourable impression Valdrada made, the 
armed Florentine guard, which accompanied her and 
stood sentry at her beck and call, called forth violent 

34 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

protests. Altogether the Doge's marriage was not 
an unmixed blessing to himself or his people. Never- 
theless Pietro and Valdrada seemed happy together : 
he humoured her petulance and she fanned his self- 
esteem. Two children were the fruits of this union, 
Pietro and Marina. 

Two important questions were exercising men's 
minds in Venice what time Dogaressa Valdrada 
mounted the ducal throne — the treatment of slaves 
and the expedition against the Saracens. With the 
first Valdrada was keenly interested, indeed it was 
the spectacle of her retinue of slaves, and their abject 
condition, that drew special attention to a very knotty 
question. 

The Doge tried to persuade his wife to dismiss 
these unfortunate people, or at all events to reduce 
their number, but her ill-conditioned temper would 
brook no interference. She threw in his teeth the 
fact that she was the special /r^/^^^ of the Emperor, 
a descendant of a royal race, and the first Italian 
Dogaressa to share the honours of the dogado. 

Valdrada was a virago in more senses than one — 
clever she was and talented, as well as strong-willed 
and hard-hearted. To her directly was due the 
introduction from Tuscany of the Roman bull-fight, 
and this took the quiet and undemonstrative 
Venetians by storm, and, incidentally, led to the 
division of the community into two camps — the 
Castellani and the Nicolotti. 

Rings were formed at the Lido each Monday in 
September and October when the whole of Venice 
thronged the beach in gondolas. In November the 
rendezvous was moved to the gardens of Olivolo, by 
the church of San Pietro di Castello ; and December 

35 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

saw the bull-baiting transferred to the site of the 
Piazza. The Dogaressa was accustomed to preside 
at these combats in person, assuming all the attri- 
butes of a sovereign. Popular enough were the 
sports, for very shrewdly, she added prizes for athletic 
contests of all kinds and for regattas on the canals ; 
but the patricians looked on with anything but 
kindly eyes. 

Doge Pietro IV. was, perhaps, the proudest of 
all the proud men who ever occupied the highest 
position in the Commonwealth, and his wife's 
assumptions and pretensions added greatly to his 
self-importance. His name of derision in Rial to 
was " Superbossimo," the "Vain-glorious!" His 
entourage was largely composed of unscrupulous 
Tuscans, truculent Greeks and self-seeking Germans : 
he kept royal state and treated the nobles and the 
officials with coldness and disdain. At the same 
time he rallied all the different branches of his family, 
which were established in and about Padua and 
Vicenza, and formed a family league which threatened 
to overthrow the constitution of Venice. 

Startled at last, by the imminence of the danger 
to their liberties, nobles and citizens took arms, in 
the autumn of 976, and marched to the Ducal palace. 
They were received by a deadly volley from the 
foreign mercenaries, and, maddened by this treachery, 
the people acted with a promptitude which admitted 
of no quarter. Fire was laid to the great portal of 
the palace, and logs of wood dipped in pitch were 
flung through the closed windows. 

The flames spread rapidly, and eventually 
enveloped more than three hundred houses, and the 
splendid churches of San Marco, San Teodoro, and 



36 




LA CAZZPl del TORO 
IN CARNIVAL TIME. 

FROM A PRIXT. 1560. 

Habiti Delle Donne." — G. Franco. 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Santa Maria Zobenlgo. The lust for vengeance and 
destruction swept over the calm, but, if once roused, 
impetuous, populace, and nobody and nothing was 
spared. 

The Doge fled distractedly from room to room, 
holding in his arms his only boy — the infant Pietro. 
The Dogaressa with Marina rushed panic-stricken 
after him. Escape from the crumbling blazing ruins 
was only possible by a little wicket which gave upon 
the courtyard of San Marco. Here, progress was 
stayed by a posse of armed nobles and citizens, 
among whom the unhappy Doge recognised several 
of his personal friends. Of the latter he begged his 
life and the safety of his family. 

''You, my friends," he cried in anguish, "have 
chosen to join in my destruction. If I have trans- 
gressed in any way, either in words or actions, I 
crave my life, whilst I promise to satisfy every 
demand. Speak and let me pass." 

Words were of no avail, such justice as the 
popular will required was swift and drastic. Not 
one, but many swords clove through ducal bonnet 
and robe of state, and Doge Pietro Candiano IV. 
lay quivering, a livid mass upon that blood-dyed 
floor. Not content with this butchery brutal hands 
seized the unoffending princeling, and neither his 
innocence nor Valdrada's pleas sufficed to save 
him. She was cast aside as a foul thing too 
hateful for any man to slay, and her child was 
impaled upon a spear, stuck into the body of his 
father ! 

At eventide a poor man, one who abhorred the 
foul deed, Giovanni Gradenigo, came with a 
company of pious friends and took away the muti- 

37 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

lated bodies and laid them reverentiy in the crypt of 
Sant' Ilario. 

The Dogaressa, with her young daughter 
Marina, succeeded in escaping, — perhaps she was 
allowed to do so to avoid difficulties with the 
Imperial Court and the arrogant Marquis of Tuscany. 
She fled to Verona and threw herself at the feet of 
the Empress Adelheid the Emperor's mother, w^ho 
resided there. 

To be avenged of the Venetians was now her 
one and only purpose. Her imperious temperament 
yielded to a violence of hatred almost diabolical in 
its intensity. She appealed to Otto to set fire to 
Venice, to take the nobles captive, to cast the 
citizens into prison, and to make slaves of the 
women and children ! She demanded the repay- 
ment of the gold she had carried with her to Venice, 
the restitution by the Candiani of the estates with 
which she had dowered her husband, and demanded 
a huge tribute by way of compensation for her 
wrongs. 

Pietro Orseolo, who had been elected Doge, 
after the assassination of Pietro Candiano, by the 
tumultuous voice of the people, despatched Domenigo 
Grimani to Piacenza where the Emperor was in 
residence to discuss the claims of the widowed 
Dogaressa. By a rare display of urbanity and tact 
Valdrada's vehemence was soothed, her claims 
modified, and an agreement was come to agreeable 
to all parties. 

She acknowledged her love for her husband and 
exclaimed before the full Court: — "A wife is not 
given by nature to be her husband's judge but as 
his companion." She refused however to enter a 

38 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

convent, as became a widowed Dogaressa, but 
returned to her brother's Court in Tuscany, and 
apparently ended her days at the castle of Pisa at 
the end of 997. By her will, dated 24th November 
of that year, she bequeathed a castle and an estate 
situated in the Adige to her brother, who gave them 
to the abbey of Vangadizza. 

The web of human life, strained at times and 
knotted, is never long spun out before romance and 
tragedy cross it in the woof. Each man and 
woman's work in the tapestry of fate is run with 
needles sharp and blunt. None need look to fiction 
for inspiration whilst fact is so devious and so amaz- 
ing. Cupid and Mars ever were inveterate enemies ; 
but '' Love's Labour " is never *' Lost " — for Love is 
stronger, after all, than death ! 

The love-story of Gerardo Guoro and Elena 
Candiano is as touching as any in the gentle annals 
of romance. She was the daughter of Doge Pietro 
Candiano IIL, — a girl in whose veins coursed the 
bluest of noble Venetian blood, whilst her lover was 
base-born, though of a respectable family. He was 
probably as the Venetian proverb has it '' Erser in 
Candia,'' — ''Without a farthing in his pocket!" 
Such unequal affairs of the heart, as the world has 
always called them, are just where the romance of 
love runs riot ! 

It was so when Gerardo and Elena, the originals 
of Shakespeare's " Romeo and Juliet," plighted their 
troth secredy, and told nobody but Elena's doting 
old nurse Marta, who contrived the interviews, bore 
the messages, and shielded the secret from the Doge 
and Dogaressa. 

Perhaps matters might have gone differently 
39 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

"had not Cupid," as the Bard of Avon says, in his 
" Much Ado About Nothing," "spent all his arrows 
in Venice ! " With the very first bud of their rose- 
tree of happiness, alas, gallant Gerardo was 
summoned to join his company and to embark for 
the Orient. Elena's mother, noting the girl's tearful 
pallor, decided that matrimony was the only remedy. 

"A maiden fretting 
Is cured by wedding." 

A very eligible partner appeared duly on the 
scene, one Messir Vettor Belegno, a patrician of 
ripe age and wealthy, whose widowed home looked 
for a new mistress. Broken-hearted Elena refused 
her rich paramour, but a daughter of the Doge has 
no will of her own, and the marriage contract was 
duly signed, and she, more dead than alive, ever 
fretting for her absent Gerardo, was led to her 
nuptials in San Pietro di Castello. 

The fatal knot was tied, but it had nearly com- 
passed a fatality, for, no sooner had the ring of the 
wedded wife been slipped upon her finger, than 
poor Elena, clad in her bridal garb of purity, 
swooned in Belegno's arms. A speechless awe per- 
vaded the brilliant wedding party, for when the 
beauteous bride came not back again to conscious- 
ness, the Bishop pronounced her dead ! The joyous 
notes of the nuptial ceremony were abruptly changed 
to the dirge of burial, and, there, wrapped in her 
bridal dress, she lay crowned with fresh spring 
flowers until a place was prepared for her cold body 
in the crypt. 

As fate would have it the morrow of her funeral, 
when the fair alabaster-like form of the lovely girl 

40 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

lay alone in that dark place, saw brave Gerardo's 
troop of gallant warriors landed at the Lido. News 
of the tragedy was swiftly conveyed to the fleet, and 
the disconsolate young husband hastened fearfully 
to the old church on Olivolo. Slipping aside the 
heavy marble cover of Elena's tomb, he kneeled 
upon his knees imploring Heaven's pardon and 
Heaven's favour. 

Then, in a paroxysm of grief he stretched his 
body along the silent form of his beloved one, and, 
looking into her eyes, he pressed his breast to hers, 
and there they lay. Presently he is conscious of a 
pulse and a movement in the bridal shrouded corpse, 
and, joy of joys, her eyes open, and she knows that 
her Gerardo has come home to claim her ! 

Beside himself with transports of love and 
sorrow he carries the unresisting girl to his mother, 
by whose care and Gerardo's kisses, she is nursed 
back to life and happiness. But who shall break 
the news to the Doge and Dogaressa? Gerardo 
answers the query manfully. He has gained laurels 
in the East, and his grateful city has honours to 
bestow. Kneeling before the Doge to receive his 
guerdon he bravely recounts the story he has to 
tell. The Doge is incredulous, but confirmation is 
ready to hand, when his daughter, running to 
Gerardo, takes his hand in hers, and craves her 
father's benediction. 

The bridegroom of the tragedy gracefully step- 
ping aside renounces, quite nobly, the marriage 
dowry, and joins the Doge and Dogaressa in 
sanctioning Elena's secret wedding with Gerardo. 
As story-books relate — they lived ever after in 
perfect happiness and great content. 

41 



CHAPTER II 



The Legends of the Middle Ages were the fruitful 
source of the Poetry of the Renascence. Greek 
mythology and Roman mysticism yielded place to 
the humanistic tenets of Platonism and the heroic 
narratives of Christianity. Every temple and church 
and every monument and monastery became the 
treasury of moral and religious stories. Traditions 
of the past were the foundation of the histories of 
the present and these superstructures the forecasts 
of the future. 

Venice, by the reason of her unique environment, 
gathered all that was fairest, noblest and most mov- 
ing of the life above and around her. The charms 
of allegor)' found in the people of the lagunes ready 
acceptance, and the halo of romance shed a brilliant 
light in the homes of every family. 

*' If to-day be another's, to-morrow is yours," was 
a sentiment deep down in the hearts and minds of 
every man, woman, and child. Venice was the apple 
of each eye ; each individual cared for her before 
self-interest. 

"Z(2 Campagna me consola, 
Me Venegia ze la sola 
Che me posa co7itenter 
O Venegia benedetta 
Nole vogio pia la sar ! " — 

So ran the popular barcarolle. 
Each family had its own legends and its peculiar 
42 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

characteristics, — the very names were indicative of 
an eventful past — each had its symbol and its story. 

The family of Ursoilo or the Orseoli, '' Little 
Bears ! " was one of the four great ruling families 
in the early days of the Venetian Republic. They 
originally came from Aquileia when the Huns 
devastated Veneto. Their arms were two dancing 
brown bears, shaggy and obese, upon a blue field. 
With the Badoeri, Candiani and Michieli they 
shared the unique distinction of supplying Doges for 
full two hundred years. 

Pietro dal' Orseolo (976-978) was the first repre- 
sentative of the family to mount the ducal Chair 
of State. He succeeded upon the assassination of 
Pietro Candiano IV., in which atrocious act he was 
reported to have a share, although probably, it was 
another Pietro, a namesake, who plotted against the 
Candiani. 

The new Doge was an excellent man, ''laudato 
di tuttV as it was said of him, — but hardly the sort 
of ruler needed in such turbulent times. His first 
work was to remedy the excesses of the popular 
outbreak, and next he set himself the task of rebuild - 
ing both the basilica and the palace. To him is due 
the unique Pala doro or Altar-front of beaten and 
embossed silver-gilt, made at Constantinople. 

His spouse, of a gentle loving nature like his 
own, was Donna Felicia Malipiero, by whom he had 
two sons — Pietro and Domenigo. The Doge and 
Dogaressa were devoted to the exercises of religion 
and their modest home during the rebuilding of the 
Ducal palace was thronged by ecclesiastics, both 
regular and secular, native and foreign-born. 

43 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Everything which had to be done was laid before 
these clerical advisers — quite naturally exciting the 
resentment of the nobles of the Council. The Ducal 
manage was very staid and meagre, and the merry 
maidens and modish matrons of the city had no 
countenance from devout Donna Felicia. 

By degrees the Doge and Dogaressa altogether 
withdrew from State affairs : partly because they 
were weary of the importunities of Dowager 
Dogaressa Valdrada, whose dowry the Doge at 
length paid out of his privy purse, and partly because 
they had ceased to be in touch with the worldly 
occupations of their fellow-citizens. To pious works 
they addressed themselves, and first, in memory of 
Doge Pietro Tradonico, who, in Z^l^ was murdered 
on the patronal festival of Saint Mark, they founded 
a hospital for poor pilgrims on their way to Palestine. 
The site chosen was a piece of waste ground (now 
included in the Piazza) belonging to the nuns of San 
Zaccaria. Whilst the Doge spent his leisure in 
devotions before the shrine, the Dogaressa visited 
the patients in the hospital and performed the most 
menial of offices. 

After two years of dignity Doge Pietro Orseolo 
abdicated his high office, and, accompanied by the 
Abbot Guarino of the Monastery of Saint Michele 
de Cassano in Aquitaine — a priest, of whom he had 
made a personal confidant — he withdrew secretly to 
France, and died many years after in his lonely cell 
at Longuedere near Cassano. 

A characteristic story is told of the cloistered 
Doge, who had placed himself under the guidance 
of the far-famed and ascetic Abbot Romoaldo, the 
founder of the strictest rule of the Camaldolites. 

44 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Being unable to bear the austerity of his life, and 
suffering from hunger and the hardships of heavy 
manual labour, Brother Pietro Orseolo asked the 
holy man for some relaxation. 

'' Father," said he, ** I have a gross body and I 
cannot, for my many sins, support my strength upon 
the daily morsel of hard biscuit, grant me, I pray 
thee, a more generous fare." 

" My son," replied Romoaldo, *' thy body must be 
kept under, nevertheless I will allow thee one half 
biscuit more a day." 

Dogaressa Felicia survived her husband many 
years — cloistered in the convent of San Zaccaria. 
She was much comforted by the filial devotion of 
her two sons, to whom she was never tired of 
repeating their father's pious advice: — " Take care 
to preserve the rights of the Church, and be drawn 
aside from doing justice neither by love nor hate." 

The fame of Pietro Orseolo's renunciation and 
good works reached the ears of the Sovereign 
Pontiff, who authorised the necessary steps to be 
taken for his canonisation ; and thus Saint Pietro 
Orseolo took his place among the many venerated 
saints of Venice. In the year 1732, his right arm 
was brought back from Cassano, and was deposited 
in San Marco among the holy relics. 

In the Museo Civico, in Venice, is a quaint 
painting, quite Byzantine in style, by the Venetian 
painter Giovanni Santacroce of the Madonna and 
Bambino attended by a choir of cherubs. Upon 
either side of Saint Mary kneel Pietro and Felicia 
Orseolo. He is clad in an ermine cape over a 
monkish habit and upon his head he wears a plain 
horned bonnet. The Dogaressa is attired in the 

45 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

rochet of a nun and wears the close-fitting wimple 
of the cloister. 

The ordinary dress for nobles and men of com- 
manding talent and wealth consisted of long stuff 
tunics or cassocks with leather belts, full cloaks of 
silk lined with fur and fastened on the left shoulder, 
in the Greek fashion, by a plain gold brooch. 
Upon their heads they wore caps or bonnets of a 
Phrygian pattern with a band of interlaced coloured 
silk ribbons. Full beards and flowing locks were 
worn by all classes of the community until the 
middle of the tenth century, when the Roman mode 
of clean-shaven faces and short cropped hair became 
universal. 

The gentlewomen of Venice had long trailing 
skirts of coloured stuff or silk, — blue most favoured, 
— the bodices were cut square and low exposing the 
breast. In winter they superimposed silken mantles, 
generally of light blue — much like their lords' 
cloaks. A cincture with a jewelled clasp made of 
metal, beads, or amber kept the folds of the garment 
in position. The hair was well combed out, not 
plaited but worn loose beneath natty light blue caps 
of silk cord or chenille. Girls had tonde, — circular 
white veils, — in public and matrons black ninziolette 
— mantillas. Jewels were sparingly worn, — a single 
row of pearls round the throat, one ruby or red- 
stone ring, and a tortoiseshell comb. The richer 
ladies added chains of gold with cameo pendants of 
Greek origin. 

Pietro Orseolo II. was the second ''Grand" 
Doge of Venice. The son of pious, if misguided, 
parents who sought the good of others rather than 
their own, he learnt, at his mother's knee, lessons of 

46 





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f..^ Mr ■■■■'■ ^%\€j^;*-.. 



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The Dogaressas of Venice 

self-restraint and generosity. He was but seven- 
teen years old when the abdication of his father left 
the Ducal office vacant. 

Too young of course to succeed he was placed 
under able tutors who inculcated the duties apper- 
taining to the role of a leader and ruler of men. The 
hereditary principle was constantly and repeatedly 
affirmed in Venice notwithstanding the universal 
fear of a personal rule. Given a wise father and a 
good mother, the child was bound to be a worthy 
citizen — so they held. 

The dogado of Tribolo Memo (979-991) was 
disturbed by the feuds of the Morosini and Caloprini. 
The former supported by the Orseoli were in favour 
of a democratic alliance with the Empire of the 
East, whilst the latter, aided by the Candiani 
desired an aristocratic arrangement with the 
Emperor of the West. 

The Doge was much too weak a man and far 
too feeble a ruler to deal effectively with the situa- 
tion, they stigmatised him in Venice as "a stupid 
man ! " Matters came to a head in 983 when, one 
day Domenigo Morosini was found stripped of his 
clothes and dead in a ditch near the Piazza of San 
Pietro di Castello. His followers accused Stefano 
Caloprini of being privy to the deed. He fled to 
the Court of the Emperor Otto and sought protection 
from the Imperial Court sitting at Verona, and he 
gained the ear of the gracious old Empress Adelheid, 
she who had befriended the imperious Valdrada. 

A truce was effected and the two parties joined 
in the deposition of the Doge. As by convention 
bound he sought the repose of religion and 
Dogaressa Marina, the daughter of Pietro Can- 

47 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

diano IV. — who had escaped almost miraculously 
with her mother Valdrada from the fire at the 
Ducal Palace, — assumed the nun's veil in the con- 
vent of S. Trinita. 

It was in the dogado of Memo that seven un- 
married sisters — a prodigious number of spinsters 
as Venice society went — lived together in their own 
house opposite the Ponte della IMaravigie just below 
the Palazzo Bembo. Six were plain and one was 
fair, the youngest — and their spinsterhood was 
regarded with suspicion. One day there chanced 
along the Rivo di San Trovaso a gondolier who 
had just gained laurels at the regatta. Something 
constrained the stalwart youth to linger by the 
iron-grilled window of the spinsters* home, but 
strange sensations pervaded his w*hole anatomy so 
that he became weak and incapable of movement. 

His companions chided him and threw the name 
of the least prepossessing of the sextette, Dulcina, 
in his teeth, and they said he was bewitched ! No 
face was shown at the lattice, and no sound issued 
from the darkened room, still poor Giovanni was 
rooted to the spot. At last with a fierce effort he 
threw off the enchantment, if such it was, and 
determined to unfathom the mystery, and if the 
sisters were witches to out upon them ! Good 
Friday came round and Giovanni sought once more 
the mysterious dwelling. It was broad daylight 
and climbing up the grille he peered into a room, 
and there beheld not Dulcina, but Marina, the 
pretty sister, upon her knees before a crucifix ! 

The athlete entered the room, and, as he did so, 
he beheld in the water of the canal the reflection of 
seven brilliant stars, — all paled, as he looked up, 

48 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

but one, — and that one flashed its beams upon the 
kneeling girl. She was astounded at his presence, 
and, when he straightly charged her with witchcraft, 
she weepingly replied: — *'My art is not that of a 
witch, goodly youth, but of Cupid. I have prayed 
for thee, that Heaven would make thee strong and 
true. See, my star is shining o'er thy head — " 

"And my arms," exclaimed the enraptured 
Giovanni, ''are around thy breast, witch or no 
witch thou hast gained me for thine own." With 
that he held her tightly to his bosom, and, un- 
resisted planted hot kisses upon her lips and with 
his finger removed her tears. 

No doubt there was a wedding, and possibly the 
six plain bridesmaids were transformed into comely 
brides as well : but the story has no such ending. 
No, — alas, — brave Giovanni was stabbed in a night 
affray and beauteous Marina drowned herself in the 
canal ! Sometimes they say, an eerie sound comes 
round the corner of the bridge — people call it 
"Marina's Wail." 

Young Orseolo, now grown into man's estate, 
was hailed as sole Doge of Venice. At once he 
showed his mettle by crushing party differences. 
Such feuds never assumed the terrible proportions 
which made Florence, Siena and other Tuscan 
towns the scenes of fraternal bloodshed times out 
of mind. The new ruler proclaimed a strong policy 
abroad, and set to work to equip a navy of armed 
vessels, wherewith to make the name of Venice 
feared in all seas. 

The Dogaressa was Maria the only daughter of 
Vitale Candiano, brother of Pietro Candiano IV. 
Very diplomatic was this union, linking, as it did, 
D 49 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

the two most renowned families in Venice, and 
offering a safeguard to the ambitions of the rival 
Caloprini and Morosini. Seven children were the 
offspring of this marriage, and their baptisms and 
marriages the Doge tactfully made the occasions of 
adding to the honours of the family and to the 
renown of Venice. 

Giovanni, the first born, was betrothed to the 
Princess Maria, daughter of the younger brother of 
the Emperors Basil and Constantine, — Prince Agrou- 
poulos. The wedding was celebrated in Constanti- 
nople with great pomp, the bride's dowry was rich 
and rare, and upon the groom was bestowed the 
rank and privilege of a Prince of Byzantium. The 
two were crowned, at their nuptials, with imperial 
diadems of gold. A Venetian navy escorted the 
bridal pair to the lagune city, where royal honours 
were rendered. It was an auspicious home-coming, 
and the pigeons, which had already made their 
home in the Piazza, flew round the young couple's 
heads in emulation of the popular ovation. 

They were a remarkably handsome couple : 
Giovanni possessed all the good looks for which his 
family was famed, and Princess Maria, according to 
old Giovanni Diacono, — the busy chronicler of 
Venice and the Venetians, — was ''a lovely bride." 
Her effigy, if not her portrait, is preserved upon the 
Ten of Spades in the suit of playing-cards preserved 
at the Museo Civico with the following legend : — 

'' Dogaressa Maria Orseolo, niece of two 
Emperors of the East, Basil and Constantine, wife 
of Giovanni Orseolo, son of the Doge of Venice, 
fair and compassionate, a goddess who is so beauti- 
ful can never be hard-hearted ! " 

50 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Some historians say that the Princess Maria 
took after her aunt, the Empress Teofanea, wife 
of Otto II., Emperor of the West, who introduced 
into Germany the luxury and extravagance of her 
brother's court at Constantinople. She was greatly 
admired for her beauty, her grace, and her erudition. 
German chroniclers speak of Teofanea's "modesty 
and strong compassionate character," and praise her 
as "a woman of unsullied virtue." 

Giovanni's imperial consort probably prepared the 
way for a still more luxurious and attractive Greek 
Dogaressa, Teodora, the consort of Doge Domenigo 
Selvo. Alas, both Giovanni and Maria Orseolo, 
with their only child, died of the plague in 1006. 

Doge Pietro Orseolo's conduct of state affairs, in 
spite of the limitations placed upon the Ducal pre- 
rogatives by the jealousies of the nobles, was marked 
by a vigour quite new to the Venetians. His 
enthusiasm fired their imaginations for they saw 
that the favourable commercial treaties he con- 
tracted, both in the East and in the West, opened 
out new possibilities of aggrandisement and opulence. 

The flag of Venice was unfurled in every foreign 
port and was accorded a respect shown to no other 
national emblem. Pirates of the Gulf alone braved 
the displeasure of the Lion of San Marco, and, to 
overawe them, a punitive expedition was despatched 
to the coast of I stria and Dalmatia, — the first actual 
fleet of battleships sent forth from Venice. The 
Doge took command in person and Bishop 
Gradenigo, in the church of San Pietro di Castello, 
delivered into his hand the great red oriflamme of 
the Patron Saint, which had been embroidered by 
the skilful hands of the Dogaressa and her ladies. 

51 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Upon the finial of the pole she tied, with a great 
bow of blue silk ribbon, a floral wreath of sea-pinks 
and carnations. 

The expedition was an unqualified success. 
Everywhere Venice triumphed, and, when Lesina, 
the pirate capital, capitulated, the climax was 
reached. The Doge forthwith annexed the whole 
littoral to the dominions of Venetia, assuming for 
himself and his successors the title of " Duke of 
Dalmatia and the Islands of the East." 

The conquered towns were laid under heavy 
contributions : — Pola in two thousand pounds' worth 
of purest olive oil, and one thousand yards of fine 
spun linen, twenty sables and a bale of thinnest 
silver gauze, for the Dogaressa's use. Thus Doge 
Pietro Orseolo laid the foundation of Venetian 
greatness abroad just as Doge Agnello Badoero had' 
done at home, at Rivo-Alto a hundred and twenty 
years before. 

The home-coming of the fleet was a magnificent 
triumph, the first of those splendid aquatic pageants 
which became so remarkable in the annals of Venice. 
Among those who hastened to welcome the Venetian 
Doge was the Emperor Otto III. who spent seven 
days as the guest of the Doge and Dogaressa. 

Peace with honour having now placed laurel 
leaves around the heads of the Ducal pair they 
addressed themselves to the pleasant task of 
decorating the new basilica of San Marco and 
adorning the new ducal palace ; but, alas, whilst 
superintending these undulatings, Doge Pietro 
Orseolo " fell ill of a fever " and died on the tenth 
anniversary of the fall of Lesina, at the early age of 
forty-nine. By his will he divided his property into 

52 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

three parts : — one third for the one observance of 
the '' Festa delle Marie,'' one third to the Church 
and certain monasteries, and one third for his 
widow and his children. 

*' Pietro Orseolo has come down to us as a good 
prince, beloved by his fellow-citizens and feared 
by the enemies and the rivals of Venice." The 
Dogaressa Maria took, as it behoved her to do, 
the vow of chastity and became an inmate of the 
convent of the nuns of San Zaccaria. In the crypt 
of the monastic church was laid the body of her 
husband, ''buried," as chroniclers have related, 
''per la trista Citta e lachrimosa "/ and she found a 
last resting-place by his side — " a good woman and 
a great Dogaressa." 

The Doge's second son named Pietro, — but re- 
named Otto or Ottone, in honour of the visit of the 
Emperor of the West, — married Grimelda, sister of 
Geiso, King of Hungary, in 1003, and succeeded to 
the ducal Estate on the death of his father. Little 
is recorded of him save that he had been created by 
his father Count of Ragusa after the Venetian con- 
quest of Dalmatia. He and his consort were not 
made of their parents' grit, for, alas, when the 
rising family of Gradenigo preferred claims to 
the dogado, they fled to Constantinople, and there 
they died. Dandolo, the historian, says : — " The 
Dogaressa Grimelda was a woman of sweet dis- 
position, of considerable attainments and of remark- 
able nobility of character. " 

The third son of Pietro Orseolo H. and Maria 
was christened Orso and early dedicated to a 
monastic career. Domenigo, the youngest of the 
family married Imelda, granddaughter of Pietro 

53 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Candiano III. and RIchielda. The three daughters 
were, Icella married In 999 to Stefan, son of Surigno, 
Prince of Croatia ; Imelda who died young and 
unmarried ; and FeHcia, Abbess of Sant' Antonio 
di Torcello. 

With the death of Pletro, — grandson of the 
" Great " Pietro, son of the fugitive Ottone, in 1038 
ended the famous family of Orseolo. The " dancing 
bears " ceased their gambols but the blue sky of 
Venice still cast its effulgence upon the mirrored 
waters of the canals. 



II 

The long reign of Doge Domenigo Contarini 
(1043- 1 076) — the longest on record — was unevent- 
ful. It presented no special features — for Venice 
was at peace both at home and abroad. Family 
feuds were hushed, though doubtless the Morosini 
ill-brooked the elevation of a rival house. 

Those were days of repose and plenty when it 
was boastfully said by her citizens : — *' Venice wants 
for nothing ! " Such seasons of rest are occasionally 
granted to States, when leisure is found to apply the 
lessons of the past and to prepare for the develop- 
ments of the future. 

Contarini was the premier of a triumvirate of 
Doges — the " Tribunal system " — as it was called, — 
being again enforced to limit personal autocracy. 
His CO- Doges were Domenigo Selvo and Vitale 
Faliero — the former being especially the representa- 
tive of the democratic section of the community. 

Selvo belonged to an ancient family of Greek 
extraction. In the eighth century his ancestors the 

54 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Dorsoduri, or, in the Venetian vernacular, Spina- 
lunge, were exiled by the Emperor Emmanuel from 
Byzantium and settled at Altino in Veneto. By the 
time, however, of Domenigo, all such antecedents 
were forgotten, and he was received cordially as the 
Ambassador of Venice by the Emperor Constantine 
Ducas. Upon the death of the venerated Doge in 
1 07 1, Domenigo Selvo was unanimously chosen 
by the Council and vociferously acclaimed by the 
citizens as his successor. The cry was raised upon 
the Piazzetta : — ''Not volemo Dose Domenigo Selvo, 
e lo laudiano ! " and hoisted upon the shoulders of 
his friends he was borne in riotous procession to his 
coronation. Passing the open doors of the grand 
basilica he leaped out of the arms of his bearers, 
and, kneeling humbly upon the tesselated pavement, 
he devoutly implored the help of Heaven and the 
blessing of the Church. 

The dogado of Selvo was perhaps less remark- 
able for the potentiality of the new Doge — strong 
man as he was no doubt — than for the personality 
of the haughty princess he brought to Venice to 
share the honours of the ducal State. 

Dogaressa Teodora Ducas was the daughter of 
the Emperor Constantine and her betrothal to the 
Doge of Venice was brought about by her brother 
Michael, who in 1067 succeeded his father as 
Emperor of the East. She landed on the Lido first 
for Mass, and then at the Piazzetta, wearing the 
imperial diadem with which her brother had crowned 
her at the nuptials in Constantinople. 

At the same time everybody noted that His 
Serenity the Doge's bonnet of Estate was encircled 
by a richly wrought band of pure red Grecian gold, 

55 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

encrusted with precious stones ! No Doge had ever 
worn such a conspicuous mark of royalty, and many 
a noble lord looked askance at the wearer — doubtino^ 
in his mind whether it was intended as an emblem 
of sovereignty ! Feelings of alarm filled the minds 
of the citizens and the welcome accorded to the ducal 
pair was cold and formal. 

The new Dogaressa was accompanied by a very 
numerous retinue, such as no previous consort of 
the Chief Magistrate had presumed to gather round 
her. Secretly the Venetians liked well their Doges 
and their nobles to contract splendid foreign 
marriages, and no "Brides of Venice" were more 
thoroughly admired than the " donne Greche fonte di 
cortesia at amorevolezza ! " 

Teodora unfortunately did nothing to propitiate 
the insular prejudice of the men and women of 
Venice. Her autocratic bearing and her ill-dis- 
guised contempt for the "women of the Rial to " 
caused head-shakings and tongue-waggings in every 
■circle of society. From the first she was as un- 
popular as her consort, the Doge, was beloved. 

In the Ducal Palace the Dogaressa set up an 
Imperial Court and required the nobles and state 
officials to render the honours to which she had 
been accustomed at Constantinople. She had her 
ladies of honour, her chamberlains, her pages and 
her slaves. Superbly robed and glittering with 
precious ornaments, Teodora Selvo offered an 
amazing contrast to Elena — the homely consort of 
the first " Grand " Doge — Agnello Badoero ! 

Teodora was an Athenian of the Athenians, with 
all the predilections of a Sultana of the harem. 
Pomp and pettiness were strongly mingled in her 

56 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

character. The corruption of the Byzantine Court, 
in which she had been reared, had laid their in- 
delible marks upon her : she shocked the suscepti- 
bilities of the simple, homely Venetians by her 
voluptuousness, her petulance, and her extravagance. 

Still, there was something about the Dogaressa 
which attracted sympathy, for were not the people 
of Rialto and her linked-up islets, descendants of 
Greek colonists in Veneto, and did they not pre- 
serve many traits and idiosyncrasies of their ancestors! 
Then, too, many a sea-faring Venetian, conquered 
by the artifices of Cupid in the Orient, had brought 
home a Greek bride to be the mother of his children, 
so the ways of the Dogaressa were not altogether 
without appeal. 

Teodora lived delicately : the plain fare and 
simple service of her consort's establishment, which 
also obtained too in the casas of the nobles, were 
not to her liking. She introduced exquisite cooking 
— the Greek cuisine in place of the crude joints and 
inartistic concoctions of the Roman menu. Costly 
wines and liqueurs from Syria and the remote East 
supplanted the heavier beverages of the lagunes. 
Her table service was of pure gold and costly rock- 
crystal. 

Unlike the primitive ways of the unsophisticated 
Venetians, who were content to convey their food to 
their mouths with their fingers or with ladles, and 
to share cup and plate, the Dogaressa introduced a 
Grecian fork — an entirely new instrument in Western 
Empire — which was of solid gold, two-pronged, and 
beautifully chased, with which she ate dainty morsels, 
neatly carved and arranged by the eunuchs of the 
table. Moreover, she made constant use of finger- 

57 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

glass and finger-napkin — things which were un- 
known in Venice. Great wax candles were liorhted 
after dark, and stuck into costly sconces — in spite 
of the archaic regulations of the curfew. 

Teodora Selvo rarely walked in the Piazza — the 
gondola was for her an ideal conveyance, it ministered 
to her love of ease and admirably served her secret 
flirtations. In public she always wore gloves, 
scented with aromatic herbs, and in this she set a 
fashion, which, no Venetian noble or simple of to- 
day, fails to observe. 

Into the mysteries of the Dogaressa's toilet we 
may also most fortunately be admitted, through the 
grace of those who kept her diaries. The air of 
her apartments was perfumed each day before she 
rose for her levee. Beautiful scent-scatterers of 
blown grass, and elegant pastille stands were 
carried up and down by her attendants. This 
little bit of extravagance we may all thoroughly 
endorse, for doubtless, in her day, the odours of 
the canals were as bad if not worse, than in our 
own ! 

The morning bath was administered with per- 
fumed water, or white wine, and sometimes with 
freshly-gathered dew from the flower petals and 
green sward of her garden. If the Latins were 
especially careful as to washing their feet, the 
Greeks were equally particular about their heads : 
they found the douche healthful and invigorating. 
The more exquisite Athenians had a special perfume 
and wash for each portion of the body. It was 
said that simple-minded peasant Paris was directly 
influenced, in the bestowal of his golden apple, by 
the seductive odours exhaled by the massaged, 

58 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

painted, powdered, well-laved person of the fascin- 
ating Queen of Beauty ! 

No doubt Teodora carried with her into the 
Ducal Palace a full battery of toilet requisites and 
delicacies — for example : for her arms, sweetened 
mint, clearest oil of palms for her lips and breast, 
sweet marjoram mixed with the pomades for hair 
and eyebrows, and for knees and neck essence of 
ground-ivy — such was the custom of her people. 

The Dogaressa's clothing, if not quite "of fine 
gold " was of the richest damask and the fairest 
linen procurable ; her marriage coffer was full of 
marvels. Everything she wore was heavily scented, 
so that wherever she went a delicious perfume was 
scattered around and about. 

Probably Cleopatra was Teodora's best-loved 
model, not indeed that she ever went so far as to 
dissolve pearls in sour wine or place biting vipers 
in her bosom ! There is a very beautiful painting 
by a pupil of Paris Bordone — perhaps by the master 
himself — of a '' Gentildonna Venetta'' in the dress 
of the Eastern queen — may it not have been in- 
spired by the story of the Dogaressa Teodora ! 

What a thousand pities it is that art was too 
crude in the eleventh century to permit of an 
actual portrait of the Venetian Queen of Fashion 
Teodora ! 

We know not whether she was fair or dark, tall 
or short, embonpoint or thin. The probabilities 
are that she was blonde, as most Greek beauties 
were, but any attractions her figure may have 
offered as a bride possibly were diminished when 
she became a matron. High living, sensuous 
conduct and idleness bring their punishment to 

59 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

most men and women, and Teodora Selvo was no 
exception to the rule. 

Plain old Pierr-o Dibicrno — :ha.: unmercitully 
exact chr:u:;lr; f roin^s \'r::r::c.o. — speaks of 
Teodora's '• Z^/::.? .tV.V;.:;.--,-.:. " He says: — "Her 
Serenity's sinfiil voluc:-::us::ess and inordinate self- 
indulrence brouo^ht with die::: a ^"ud^r/.ent. About 
twc yr-:£ :.ber her marriage wi::: :be L:ri Stlvo 
the Dogarrssa was attacked by a putrid fever. The 
malady became at last so insubbrab'y u:s:^-:-ruu 
that the proud daugbrer of C :::-:a:::b:t v.- as aa 
object in her lates: a::ment3 of a'da^led c:a:aar-::a 
and abhorrence to all around her. She v.-a^ '.r:b to 
die aliar aauc-s:, :be victim of outraa'e:us s;:lendour 
and ouira^-ecas aaclaaaaass 

Thr D:^.rr-. Tridir. aizd a: laSs- 

As to the exact negotiation which ended in 
Dc a: era go Selvo leading home an im.perial bride, we 
ha\e a: :afarma:::a, Tha: be "a? astute enough 
to :^e: :at las: ::" r. ;:ar^a:a ^les vaiaout savino-. for, 
in c:a:a::a v,din :ae geaeraary ol \'enetians he was 
able a: v;-:^" the : realises :f cne favourable alliance 
agains: :-:a art-aa;a;. aavaaiaaas C- aaiaaer. 

Possessed -if ::ua:rase wealia aa:'. : :' the faculty 
of ever addincr to it. fortuitouslv ea:aaa djr him. the 
Imperial Governmer.r at Constantinople .s at the 
period of Selvo's embassy in dire ner;l :f funds. 
The Army ",vr,s mutinous :arougl: :::r a.^i^a.-'jayment 
of the troops, the Xavy was undermanned and un- 
ready for action, and the Exchequer was depleted. 

Selvo, and those who saw what he saw. feared 
oppression from the Germans and the French, and 
when another power. — the Xorsem.en. — as mighty or 
mightier than \'enice on the Seas pushed conquests 

60 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

along the Mediterranean shores, all eyes turned to 
their natural ally at Constantinople. An alliance was 
arranged, Venetian ships and men were placed at the 
service of the Imperial Government, and the hand 
of the Emperor's sister was thrown into the bargain. 

The Doge took command in person of the fleet 
which gave battle to the bold Norsemen under 
Roberto Guiscardo at Durazzo and vanquished them, 
but, alas, he was defeated later on at Corfu. Never- 
theless, Selvo showed splendidly the grit that was in 
him and wore the laurels he gained triumphantly. 

One other enterprise — a peaceful one also en- 
deared him to his fellow-citizens — his love for the 
Ducal Palace and for San Marco. With rare munifi- 
cence he embellished both edifices with rare marbles 
and mosaics which he had collected in the Orient, 
and dowered both edifices with revenues. 

The manner of his death is not recorded, some 
say he abdicated, soon after the arrival of the 
Dogaressa, in favour of his son, Michele, and ended 
his days in a monastery. Anyhow he survived his 
unhappy wife but a short twelve months and left the 
direction of State affairs to the care of his former 
coadjutor Vitale Faliero who in 1085 assumed the 
proud title of Doge of Venice, Croatia, and 
Dalmatia. 

Teodora Selvo was not forgotten by the 
Venetians. She had, in all her recklessness of life, 
been a splendid figure-head for the State, no less 
than a generous patroness of the industries of her 
adopted city. Much of the extravagance which 
marked the manners of the nobles, at the end of the 
eleventh century, was due to her example. 

One very excellent fashion survived her — and 
61 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

still survives — the love of perfumes. The botteghe 
of the apothecaries and perfumers in the ^lerceria 
were made, by the Dogaressa's example, the fashion- 
able daily rendezvous of the best people in \'enice 
and so they have remained. None to-day are so 
fond of scent and cosmetiques as the Venetians of 
all classes. Still in Chioo^oria, and other outlvinof 
portions of the lagunes, women of every station, are 
remarkable for the painting of the face, the dyeing 
of the hair, and other gentle artifices. 

The Tuscan motto : — " L'Uomo fa le les^ae — 

oo 

la donna i costumi " — was true of \'enice what time 
the fascinating Dogaressa Teodora set the fashions 
in the Piazza. 



Ill 



The last of the four chief or " Apostolic " ruling 
families of Venice to gain the dogado was that of the 
iMichieli. The designation "Apostolic " was assigned 
to each of the twelve foremost families in the roll of 
nobility — the families of the twelve Tribunes who 
joined in the election of the first Doge Paolo Lucio 
Anafesto. Their names were enrolled in 709 at 
Eraclea : — Badoeri (Orse.oli), Candiani, Contarini, 
IMorosini, Gradenighi, Memi, Falieri, IMichieli, 
Dandoli, Poll, Barozzi, and Tiepoli. 

The very name '' Michielo " indicates their origin 
— descendants of Greek colonists in Veneto. They 
were among the fugitives from Altino, who fled to 
the lagunes on the approach of the Longobards. and 
settled on the lido of Torcello. 

The first Michielo to be elected Doge was Vitale, 
in 1096, in succession to Vitale Faliero, under whom 

62 




DOGARESSA AND HER MAIDS OF HONOUR. 

FRO:\r A PRIXT. 1569. 
" Habiti d'Huomini e Donne." — G. Franco. 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

the new Republic shattered the last shreds of vassal- 
age to the Byzantine Empire. Vitale Faliero's con- 
sort was Cornelia Bembo, who presented her spouse 
with a daughter to whom he gave the name of Enrica, 
after her sponsor, the Emperor Enrico, thus confirm- 
ing the new alliance with the Germanic powers. 

The Bembi came from Eraclea and were reckoned 
one of the four noble families of the second grade, 
who, in 800, signed the roll of nobility in the church 
of San Giorgio Maggiore. They, with the Giustiniani, 
Cornari and Bragadini, were styled ''Evangelistic." 
Vitale Michielo married Donna Felicia Cornaro, 
— "gracious in speech, modest in bearing, the good- 
ness of her soul shone out in the sweetness of her 
countenance," — so is she spoken of by the chronicler. 
Perhaps too Sansovino's estimate of the women of 
the Michielo period may be most strictly applied to 
the Dogaressa Felicia : — " Having made it their aim 
to be peaceful and religious, they kept on an equality 
with one another, that equality might induce stability 
and concord. They made their dress a matter of 
conscience, conformable to their seriousness of 
demeanour — concealing the figure." This was un- 
doubtedly a reaction from the dazzling personality 
of Dogaressa Teodora and the fascinating frivolities 
of her regime. 

Tales of the sufterings endured by Christian 
pilgrims in Palestine reached Venice what time the 
virtuous Dogaressa Felicia influenced the counsels 
of her husband for good. At first they attracted 
little sympathy, for the Venetians were too much 
absorbed with their own domestic development and 
with the condition of their home politics, to take 
much heed to foreign affairs. 

63 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

To the Dogaressa directly was due the initiations 
of efforts on behalf of the poor Syrians and the 
strangers within their gates. She persuaded the 
Doge to convene a meeting of the heads of families 
in support of the Crusade so eloquently preached by 
Peter the Hermit, and other holy men. By way of 
raising funds to assist in the sacred enterprise 
Dogaressa Felicia set an example of self-denial and 
liberality, by giving up her splendid jewels and 
dresses for sale ; she also greatly restricted her 
personal pleasures and the hospitalities of the Ducal 
Palace. 

This noble conduct, which was provocative of 
the best results, was recorded upon her tomb in the 
portico of San Marco. The lengthy inscription 
states that '' Felicia Vitalis lived and died in the 
fear and love of God ; she hated luxury and was an 
example for all good women." 

So great was her influence that in 1099 two 
hundred ships assembled at the Lido, each of which 
carried at her helm the hallowed ensign she pre- 
sented to their commanders. Sailors, troops and 
equipment from every European state were poured 
into Venice, and her fleet conveyed them safely to 
Syrian ports. 

The Doge and Dogaressa spared not their own 
family, for their first-born, Giovanni, a mere youth, 
sailed with the leader of the Venetian contingent, 
Arrigo Contarini, Bishop of Castello. Mothers of 
Venetian lads hastened to follow the good 
Dogaressa's example, and parted tearfully but 
prayerfully with their dearest and their best. 

After the departure of the Crusaders the 
Dogaressa busied herself in the foundation of hospi- 

64 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

tals and homes of rest for pilgrims on their way to 
the Holy Sepulchre. Preparations too were made 
for the care of the wounded, the ailing and the sad 
on their return from service under the Cross. 
Women's work is never so noble as when it links 
the care of suffering humanity to the cause of faith 
and hope. Dogaressa Felicia was messenger of 
pity and angel of love to all around her. 

The Crusade met with vicissitudes of course, 
but at length, their aim attained, the saintly Crusaders 
returned to Venice, bearing with them the body of 
Saint Nicholas of Myra or Morea. Well may we 
imagine the rejoicings of the mothers and sweet- 
hearts of sVenice when they descried the coloured 
sails of the home-coming vessels making for the 
Lido ! The battle-songs and hymns of the Christian 
warriors were wafted over the gently rippling blue 
water, and they found an ecstatic response in the 
sweet voices of women and children gathered all 
along the sandy beach. 

The holy relics were landed ceremoniously at 
the Lido, and, with pomp and circumstance escorted 
to the church of San Niccolo : they were the un- 
deniable tokens of fervent and successful devotion 
in the service of Christ's cross and sepulchre. 
Women almost forgot the sadness of bereavement, 
— for many homes were desolate, — in their joy and 
gladness at the accomplishment of the holy enter- 
prise. 

One other notable event In the dogado of Vltale 
Michielo L was the appeal of the great Countess 
Matilda of Tuscany to the Dogaressa Felicia to use 
her influence with the Venetians, — who were devoted 
to her, — for the recovery of Ferrara which had re- 
E 65 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

volted. She recognised that the noble spouse of 
the Doge of Venice possessed all the attributes of 
religion, justice, and benevolence. The plea was 
not in vain, and ships and seamen of Venice regained 
for the Countess the rebel city. 

Doge Vitale Michielo died in 1102, and 
Dogaressa Felicia in mi. They were both buried 
at San Zaccaria. 

The most famous of the Michieli Doges was 
Domenigo (1117-1130) grandson of Vitale I. His 
immediate predecessor was Ordelafo Faliero whose 
dogado was memorable by reason of its terrors — 
earthquakes, floods, fires and pestilence ! Dogaressa 
Matelda, cousin, or as some say, sister of Baldwin, 
King of Jerusalem, headed the crowd of panic- 
stricken women who thronged the churches to 
supplicate Heaven for pity and forgiveness. She 
tried to dissuade her husband from personally lead- 
ing the naval demonstration, which Venice made 
against the Greeks, saying that : — " The place of the 
Doge, as the father of his people, is in their midst 
during tribulation." Dandolo speaks of her as a 
"miracle of probity," and says, ''Her fame was 
widely spread about as a model of what a good wife 
should be." Nevertheless Doge Faliero went on 
board his war-galley and met under the walls of 
Zara a hero's death. 

Sad was Dogaressa Matelda as she met the 
returning warships, and broken-hearted as she took 
possession of her beloved husband's body. Slightly 
comforted was she however, when his lieutenant 
placed in her hands holy reliquaries, wherein reposed 
a splinter of the True Cross, and relics of St James 
the Less, and of Saint Plato the Confessor of Con- 

66 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

stantinople. She assisted in the solemn procession 
which accompanied these holy treasures to their last 
resting-place in San Giorgio Maggiore. Then she 
quietly retired, as a good example, to her contempla- 
tive cell at San Zaccaria. 

Another story relates that Doge Faliero was 
only wounded at Zara, and, having accomplished 
his mission and administered punishment to the 
Greek pirates of the Gulf, he sailed on to Constanti- 
nople, and there secured the venerable relics and 
with them returned to Venice. With the Dogaressa 
he shared the honours of the translation of the 
precious prizes he had obtained, and helped to bear 
on his shoulder the body of Saint Stephen to its 
last resting-place in the chapel of San Giorgio 
Maggiore ; then he and she renounced their high 
station and humbly dedicated the residue of their 
lives to the peace of the cloister. 

Domenigo Michielo was cast in a sterner mould. 
Pious, no doubt as most Venetians were, and imbued 
with a spirit of reverence as a devoted son of the 
Church, he has come down to us with the title 
'' Cattolico Uomo e And ace ! " 

The desire that the people of Venice expressed 
for the possession of relics of the Saints became 
almost an infatuation. It was the popular belief 
that the terrors of Heaven and the disasters of earth 
could best be met by the deposition of the bodies 
of martyrs on Venetian ground. Hence Doge 
Domenigo acquired the body of Saint Isidoro from 
the island of Sio, and that of Saint Donato Bishop 
of Euroea from Cephalonia, and with the latter the 
bones of the dragon, which beast he slew ! 

These were some of the spoils of the Second 

67 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Crusade wherein Venice took an active and noble 
part, and from which she obtained great political 
results and immense booty. Very acrimonious were 
the debates and consultations on the part of the 
Crusader chiefs and keen their rivalries for saintly 
distinctions and profit. Each of them had an eye 
to personal advancement and shirked the hardships 
of the campaign. Domenigo reproved them sternly : 
— "Those," he said, **who share the glory of our 
enterprise must be prepared to share its trials." 

The fleet of Venice not only aided greatly the 
pilgrims and the forces despatched from all lands 
to Palestine, but, turning homewards, ravaged the 
Grecian Archipelago. The name of Venice was 
renowned as that of — *' The Greatest Sea Power of 
Europe," and Doge Michielo was hailed as — the 
epitaph upon his tomb in San Giorgio Maggiore — 
"The Terror of the Greeks and the Glory of 
Venice." 

In his train he brought to Venice many distin- 
guished captives, among them the Lady Sofia — a 
beautiful Eastern houri, who was carried off by 
Domenigo Morosini, by him raised to the Ducal 
seat, and, at last, buried with him in the church of 
Santa Croce. 

Years of peace and prosperity followed, such as 
Venice had rarely experienced. She was coming to 
be looked upon as the nursery of the Fine Arts and 
the boudoir of the Graces, as well as Patroness of 
the Crafts and the " Mistress of the Seas." 

The frequent and often protracted absences of 
the Doge in command of fleets, from time to time 
despatched to punish pirates and marauders and 
maintain the prestige of the flag of Venice in foreign 

68 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

waters, by no means diminished the importance and 
privileges of the Dogaressa. 

As the First Lady of the Commonwealth she had 
many responsibilities which were greatly enlarged 
when her Consort was not in residence. If she had 
no position with respect to the Council of State and 
had nothing whatever to do with politics, there were 
numerous duties which devolved upon her. The 
patronage and direction of charities of all kinds — 
whether eleemosynary or educational, the mainten- 
ance of the Ducal hospitalities, the reception of 
ambassadors, the claims of family, and the encourage- 
ment of arts and crafts gave her Serenity much to 
devise and do. 

As Consort of a militant Head of the State she 
was expected to exhibit all the virtues of a virago, 
and to introduce virility into all the feminine avoca- 
tions of the day. If indeed her powers for usefulness 
were limited by restrictions she easily cast aside 
many of the conventions of her position. Such was 
the role in particular of the Donna Alicia, the able 
wife of Doge Domenigo Michielo. She lived up 
to the reputation of her husband, sharing his 
anxieties, his ambitions and his success. 

When stricken by the labours and responsibilities 
of his office he sought relief in abdication and seclu- 
sion in the monastery, Dogaressa Alicia, however, 
asserted herself, and, instead of retiring to a convent, 
as she was expected to do, she determined that 
neither the prayers and meditations of the cloister, 
nor the self-effacement and bigotry of a recluse 
should enslave her energies. 

The Societa de Pinzocchere — " Bigots ! " — to 
which many of the noble widows of Venice belonged, 

69 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

had no attraction for Donna Alicia. To be merely a 
hired mourner at State funerals was no life for her. 
She had her children to put out into the world and, 
in particular, she had her sons to prepare for high 
places under Government. Whilst, by necessity 
she had to yield the pre-eminence to the actual 
Dogaressa, her successor, she remained a free agent 
and a very useful and dependable confidante for men 
and women who had shared the toils and the 
rewards of her husband's dorado. In due time 
Dogaressa Alicia's prescience had its reward. Her 
son Vitale Michielo II. — the child of his mother's 
solicitude, was elected Doge in 1156. 

By his high tone and probity he raised the posi- 
tion of Doge to its highest level and reigned almost 
as a Sovereign Prince. His two sons he married 
well — Leonardo, created Count of Osero, to Alecia 
daughter of the King of Servia, and Niccolo, Count 
of Arbe, to Maria niece of Stefano, King of Hun- 
gary. To him was due the admission annually of 
forty young nobles to the rank of " Barbarini " 
among the members of the Grand Council ; and the 
first silver coinage of Venice, together with the 
foundation of the first public Bank. 

Alas Doge Vitale, who espoused the cause of 
the Papacy against the Emperor Frederic Barbar- 
ossa, came to an untimely end. Seeking sanctuary 
one day from a crowd of ruffians, — many of alien 
origin, — who demanded largesse he knocked at the 
gate of the convent of San Zaccaria. Before the 
porter could open to him the ill-conditioned wretches 
were upon him and offering personal violence if 
their claims were not satisfied. The Doge turned 
to address the men, and as he did so, one, Casiolo, 

70 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

a discharged gondolier lately in the Ducal service, 
struck him with his stiletto. This was the signal 
for a brutal assault, and before succour could arrive 
Vitale Michielo's body was hacked to pieces in the 
street ! 

Dogaressa Felicita Maria, daughter of Boemodo 
Prince of Antioch, it was said was at the time pay- 
ing a visit to the nuns : so dumbfounded was she at 
the tragedy that nothing could shake her resolution 
never to leave the convent, — and there she remained 
and died. She and her sons were great benefactors 
to Venice. They greatly enriched the patrimony of 
San Zaccaria, and endowed the monastery and built 
the church of San Giovanni Evangelista. 

A very pathetic and romantic episode in the 
history of the family of Doge Vitale II. and 
Dogaressa Felicita Maria Michielo was the marriage 
of their daughter Anna. Inspired by the holy 
example and goodly precepts of her mother Anna 
Michielo had taken the vows of an enclosed nun at 
the convent of Sant' Adriana d'Amiano, where she 
meditated deeply upon the trials of the Christians 
in Syria, and prayed for the weal of sons of Venice 
gone forth to the Holy War. 

In the disastrous expedition in 1170 against the 
Emperor Emmanuel Commeno all the young men 
of the Venetian family of Giustiniani were slain — 
save one. Niccolo Giustiniani was a monk in the 
Benedictine monastery of San Niccolo di Lido, 
where he had been professed when Anna Michielo 
renounced her love for him to become, by fervent 
self-denial, a Bride of Christ. 

The extinction of a noble family in those days 
was a thing of rare occurrence : the State usually 

71 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

stepped in to prevent such a catastrophe. This was 
the course adopted with respect to the Giustiniani. 
Niccolo at San Niccolo and Anna at Sant' Adriana 
were summoned from their cells, and, with the 
express permission of Pope Alexander III., were 
joined together, vows or no vows, in the holy estate 
of matrimony. 

Never was there a happier conjunction of 
kindred souls, and never so auspicious a resuscitation 
of a family-tree. Anna Giustiniani gave to her 
husband — her true and only love — twelve pledges 
of marital affection. Nine of them were sons. So 
worthy Anna was in truth and deed the " Mother of 
the Giustiniani ! " 

All twelve olive-branches reached maturity and 
then, Niccolo and Anna, freed from family cares, 
agreed to separate once more and, as the highest act 
of self-denial, to renew the sacred vow of chastity, 
and again entered upon the seclusion and the silence 
of the cell. With holy Anna went her three young 
daughters Martha, Margherita and Bartoletta. The 
two former returned to the world upon their 
marriage, but Bartoletta followed her mother's 
example and became a nun. Soon after, and during 
saintly Anna's life, the nuns were removed from the 
island convent of Sant' Adriana to Venice proper, 
and took possession of their new home at Santa 
Caterina, of which Bartoletta was named first 
Abbess. 

Anna died in the odour of sanctity, and she is 
still remembered by devout Venetian women in 
prayer and example as '' Beata Anna Giustiniani." 

It was in the days of Doge Vitale Michielo II. 
that three brothers came to Venice from Morea, 

72 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

and settled themselves and their goods In a small 
casa on the Fondaco de' Mastelli. Rioba, Sando, 
and Africo were their names, but because of their 
origin they were popularly called Mori, and their 
arms displayed a Moor leading a laden camel — the 
most stupid of beasts. They soon acquired wealth 
and set about rebuilding their humble residence. 
At the corner of the new palace, on the Campo de' 
Mori, they stuck up three sculptured figures of 
themselves under the guise of Saints Mark, Theodore, 
and John Baptist. They were very highly coloured 
and soon became laughing-stocks to passers-by. 

Two of the figures disappeared mysteriously, 
and the Baptist alone remained, but his name was 
changed to *' Sior Antonio Rioba Pantaleone." It 
became a custom for jocular Venetians to send un- 
sophisticated youths and over-trustful strangers with 
messages to the ''Sior," much as we were wont 
to treat our friends on "April- Fool Day!" At a 
later date " Sior Rioba's " mouth became the 
receptacle for denunciations of enemies — so fitful 
are the customs of people ! 



IV 



The splendid dogado of Sebastiano Ziani (1172- 
1178) was remarkable for one event, at least, of 
romantic and historic interest — the first '' Espousals 
of Venice and the Sea." 

In March 11 77 Pope Alexander III. arrived at 
the Lido after weary stately wanderings through 
Europe. He was received with joy and honour by 
all classes of the community : they were fervent 

73 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Catholics and cared little about questions and parties 
for or against Papacy which moved other States. 
Residing pompously at the Palace of the Patriarch 
of Grado, his Holiness entered fully into the 
ecclesiastical and political affairs of the city. 

Doge Ziani was absent in command of the 
Venetian fleet, and in May news reached Venice 
that he had gained a decisive victory at Salboro 
over the Emperor Frederic Barbarossa, and that 
his son and heir, Prince Otto, was a prisoner of 
war. The whole city turned out to welcome the 
victors, with their rich booty and many captives. 
Upon the beach of Lido stood the Pontiff — the 
centre of a notable group of dignitaries in full robes 
of state. Alexander was the first to congratulate 
the victorious Doge, and at the same time he 
publicly blessed the brave seamen and their leaders. 
Raising the kneeling Doge to his feet the Pope 
embraced him, and, taking off one of his own signet 
rings, he placed it upon Ziani's thumb. 

'* Take this, my son," he said, " as a token of 
the true and perpetual dominion of the sea, which 
thou and thy successors shall wed every year upon 
this auspicious festival of the Ascension, that all 
men may know that the sea belongs to Venice, and 
that she is indissolubly joined thereto as a bride to 
her husband." 

Then the whole company adjourned to the 
venerable church of San Niccolo where *' Te 
Deum " was sung pontifically. By gondola, and 
barca, and in flat-keeled galley, a water pageant 
made its way to the Piazzetta, and the rest of the day 
was spent in general merry-making, 

The annual commemoration was made the occa- 
74 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

sion of universal rejoicing and pageantry. The Doge 
and the most distinguished members of the Council 
and the foreign ambassadors to Venice took their 
places on board a wonderful vessel '' Bucintoro,'' iX, 
was called, and In stately procession went off to the 
Lido. We must not suppose that only statesmen 
and seamen took part in the pageant, for, obviously, 
It was an occasion for the display of the personal 
charms and elegant fashions of the gentildonne. 
For the use of the Dogaressa and her ladies a 
splendid galley was built, shaped like a Grecian 
temple, and tethered to a pair of wooden sea- 
monsters, wherein the forty rowers were seated. 

Arrived at the historic spot the Doge and 
Dogaressa, with their ecclesiastical and official at- 
tendants, embarked in a gaily decorated boat and 
set out to sea. Thence the Doge cast a superb ring 
into the deep — a ring of gold, enriched with onyx, 
lapis-lazull, and malachite, engraved with the sign of 
St Mark holding a book of the Gospel. *' Sponsamus 
te mare nostrum in signum verl et perpetui dominil," 
were the words he uttered solemnly, whilst the clergy 
from golden vases sprinkled holy water upon the 
company and upon the smiling rippling sea. The 
Dogaressa and the ladies of her suite cast Into the 
clear water the lovely nosegays they had brought 
with them — roses, carnations, and lilies. 

Returning to Venice, after devotions in San 
NIccolo, the Doge gave a magnificent banquet In the 
palace to the notables of the city, and then all the 
lovely girls and the comely youths of every class 
were entertained at a vast ball, which overflowed the 
Piazza, and found relief only in the most distant 
calli. By old prescription the workmen of the 

75 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Arsenal were entertained at supper by the Doge and 

Dogaressa. Each man had the privilege of keep- 
ing his knife and spoon, his glass and his napkin. 
and he received besides a silver medal — bearins: the 
effigies of the Most Serene couple, a case of useful 
medicines, a beautiful box of comfits, and a flask of 
Greek Muscat wine. 

In later times the * 'Marriage of the Sea" was 
made a second carnival — lastino- fifteen davs. durino- 
which a great fair was held in the Piazza with fire- 
works such as \^enetians only knew how to make, 
each eveninor at the Lido. 

From Doore Ziani's dav came the annual athletic 
festival on the Lido. Lads turned fifteen, and young 
men up to thirrv', after careful training in their 
various sesturi or cit)- wards, went ofi' to the butts 
and tracks set up upon the beach to contest for prizes 
in shootincr, wrestlinor boxinof, runninor, and other 
sports. The competitors were arranged in twelve 
groups called. '' Duodene!' and everyone was ex- 
pected to be a proficient bowman. Merchant ships 
always carried a certain number of such expert young 
bowmen. All '' catches " were permissible — indeed 
kickino-, wrinoanor the neck, and all the features. — 
brutal as they were. — of the Olympian grievous 
boxino- were not disallowed. Bamboos as well as 
fists were used I All classes of the male folk of the 
islands were eligible to compete in every contest and 
upon equal terms. Matrons and maids thronged to 
watch and encourage sons and sweethearts, each fair 
one scrupulously careful about her dress and veil. 
Many a Venetian *' Venus du Milo " doubtless longed 
to try herself against her companions, but such 
maiden contests were inadmissible by the State laws. 

76 




GOING TO A MASKED BALL. 

FROM A PRINT. 1560. 

Habiti d'Huomini e Donne."— G. Franco. 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Incidentally these sports, which revived the 
athletic contests Inaugurated by the Dogaressa 
Teodora Selvo, gave rise to rivalries between the 
inhabitants of the eastern and western halves of the 
City, which were ultimately resolved into two oppos- 
ing parties — the ^' CastellanV and the ^^ Nicolotti'' 
A neutral zone was ultimately marked out, where- 
upon stood the church of San Trovaso. The sacred 
building had doors opening west and east so that 
adherents of both parties might attend the Divine 
Offices without encountering one another. Diffi- 
culties however soon arose through the wantonness of 
women : maidens of one party were constantly falling 
in love with men of the other, and then trouble ensued! 

The Emperor Frederic Barbarossa himself came 
to Venice In July ii 77 — reconciling himself to the 
power of the world In the person of Doge Sebastiano 
ZianI, and to the power of the Church in the person 
of Pope Alexander III. He was sumptuously enter- 
tained by the Doge and Dogaressa. Conquerors 
and conquered joined together In scenes of gaiety 
and splendour. The Doge appeared In regal guise, 
accompanied by the new Insignia of office, bestowed 
by the Sovereign Pontiff, — a folding Chair of State, 
a Royal Cushion, a golden Sword of State, a great 
painted lighted candle, and four silver trumpets. 
The Dogaressa wore a jewelled diadem around her 
Ducal horned cap, the gift of the Pope, and a cape 
or mantle of gold brocade, bearing the Imperial 
cognisance placed around her shoulders by the 
Emperor. 

Happily Sebastiano Zlani was a wealthy man 
and so was able to maintain the Ducal dignity with- 
out reproach. He was born In 11 02 — the son of 

77 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Marino Ziani of Santa Giustina in Castello, a noble 
of ambassadorial rank. A curious legend was 
treasured in the family : an ancestor at Altino, dis- 
covered among the ruins of the Temple of Juno, a 
cow moulded in solid gold ! This was the founda- 
tion of the vast riches of the family, — the wealthiest 
by far of all in Venice, and known by the sobriquet 
' ' Famiglia della Vacca doroy ' ' L 'haver de Ziani I " 
became a proverb — synonymous of the possession 
of great wealth. 

Sebastiano lavished munificence unstintingly in 
Venice — new bridges, new facades to buildings, new 
churches, were witnesses to his benevolence, and 
dying, in 1 175, he left the bulk of his fortune for the 
decoration of San Marco. He abdicated in 11 70 
and entered the monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore. 
No historian has preserved the date of Dogaressa 
Cecilia's death, — probably she too found a refuge in 
the ducal convent of San Zaccaria. 

It may be interesting to note the prices current 
during the dogado of Sebastiano Zani for certain 
commodities of everyday life. The following is a 
brief table of the Autumn sales in 1 173 : — 

Wine (except Greek) 
Beef — a fair average quality . 
Oil „ „ „ 

Corn ,, „ „ 

Eggs 

Fish, sturgeon, trout, and ray 

„ tench and pike 

„ gudgeon, red-mullet and gunard 2 J 

These prices were quoted on the Ponte di Rialto 
and at the retail markets on the fundamenti : they 
were controlled by the Corte della Giustizia which 
Doge Ziani empanelled. 

78 



21 


soldi 


pel 


libbra ( 


pound) 


21 

25 


lire 




loco libbre 


16- 

3i 


1 7 soldi per staio 
soldi per 400 
„ „ libbra 


(bushel) 


3. 


>> 


}) 


)» 





The Dogaressas of Venice 

Games of chance and gambling were always 
restricted in old Venice, but in 1175 Niccolo 
Barattieri, as a reward — onesta grazza, — in the 
words of the Doge, — for having succeeded when 
many others had failed, in lifting and placing the 
two great pillars of Samos granite at the end of the 
Piazzetta, claimed the privilege of opening a gaming 
saloon or tent, between the columns. The promise 
could not be gainsaid — "whatever the successful 
engineer likes to ask " — but to prevent so far as 
possible the success of the undertaking it was 
ordained that all public executions should be carried 
out on the spot. Between the two pillars a raised 
flat stone was placed, and upon it ''are laid, and 
hath ever been, for the space of three days and 
three nights, the heads of all such as are enemies or 
traitors to the State, or some notorious offender." 

In all the gorgeous pageantry of Venetian Story, 
perhaps, no scene is more striking and more affect- 
ing than that which was enacted upon the Feast of 
the Nativity of Christ in 1202, within the storied 
walls of the most wonderful of all the basilicas of 
Christendom — San Marco. 

In due order within the noble choir were 
gathered together representatives of the seventy- 
and-two churches, and more than seventy-and-two 
monasteries of the islands. Before the great screen 
stood Christian knights from every European state — 
clothed in complete armour and bearing upon their 
hearts the red cross of pilgrimage. The great 
white oriflamme of the Crusade, charged with the red 
cross of the Captain of Salvation, was held unfurled 
by Lord Boniface, Marquis of Montferrat, com- 

79 



The Dogarcssas of Venice 

mander of the French contingent. It had been 
wreathed by ladies of the Doge's household with 
white lilies of the Annunciation and red carnations 
of the Crucifixion. Around the great pulpit was 
assembled all that was fair and virtuous and all that 
was frail and voluptuous in Venice. The women's 
great black veils, and the girls' veils of purest white 
linen, modestly gathered in around their full open 
bosoms, revealed beauteous classical features and 
abundant golden tresses. 

All were fired with ecstatic devotion as, kneeling 
humbly upon the stone pavement, they uttered with 
deep emotion their "Aves'' and their '' Pater- 
nosters T Like the chromatic ripples of a summer 
sea re-echoed the orisons aloft upon the resonant 
mosaics of the lofty roof, and the devout dropping 
of innumerable rosary-beads resembled the rolling 
of beach pebbles by the beating waves. The 
women of Venice were gathered together to en- 
courage their men folk to be true and brave for 
Christ and home ! 

The age and youth of Venice alike mustered 
there no less wrapt in devotion than their wives 
and sweethearts ; each man's berretta is in his hand, 
his right grasps his sword-hilt, and his knees are 
bent in self-dedication. The stripling kneels along- 
side his sire, and he again supports a more 
venerable man, — the grandsire, for the Crusaders 
knew no age limit. 

A wide avenue down the centre of the orreat 
church is left for the progress of the magistrates, 
and furtively are eyes turned to the great open 
portal as the solemn procession comes into view. 
Their Excellencies pass to their places, and, last of 

80 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

all, wearing his full Ducal State, marches, with the 
stalwart step Arrigo Dandolo — the Doge. Lightly, 
as upon few, sit his ninety-and-four years, his lame- 
ness is hardly noticeable, his back is no longer bent, 
and his eyes are keen : his Serenity bears the marks 
of a hero approaching the zenith of his career. All 
eyes are riveted upon the '' Grand Old Man of 
Venice." 

Dandolo makes his obeisance to the Sacred 
Host, — exposed above the famous Pala d'oro, but, 
to the universal wonderment, he ascends not his 
Ducal seat beside the altar, but mounts the stairway 
of the pulpit. With hand raised aloft, and voice 
piercing and full of purpose, he cries out : — " Sirs, 
we are here assembled to engage in the highest of 
all human enterprises, Christ calls Venice to fight 
for His sepulchre profaned by the hated Turk. I 
that speak in His Name, am old and feeble in 
appearance, but my heart is that of the Lion of 
Saint Mark. If you bid me, I am ready to lead 
you right on to Jerusalem. I will take up my cross 
now, and set forth to conquer and to die ! " 

An intense sensation runs through the immense 
concourse, and every man s sword is raised on high, 
as the white-headed leader kneels humbly before the 
Patriarch, who places the red cross upon his jewelled 
horned cap. Women's sobs mingle in the " Te 
Deum'' chanted by the clergy and choristers, and 
every bell in every campanile clangs, if not in 
harmony still in full-toned sympathy. 

Not a man hesitates longer, if Venice has been 
lukewarm in the matter of the Crusades, she shall 
be so no more. The women and the girls emulously 
pin the Crusaders' badges upon the breasts of fathers, 

F 8l 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

brothers, husbands, sons, and sweethearts, and lead 
them ungrudgingly to the water-side, where boats 
are waiting to carry the warriors on board the 
galleys — three hundred of them. The fleet sailed 
that evening. In the van were three giant vessels 
— '' Pelegrina,'' '' Paradiso'' and '' Aquila,'" — upon 
the latter Doge Dandolo embarked — holding in his 
hand the gorgeous crimson banner of San Marco. 

" Vent Creator " resounded from church to church, 
Jundamento \.o fundamento, ship to ship, as the fleet 
sailed out of sight, and then upon every riva and in 
every calk were girls and women weeping and dis- 
consolate — theirs was the true sacrifice, for had they 
not dedicated all that was dearest to them to the 
service of their Lord! The bride of a day lay 
clasped in the arms of her who had kept her jubilee, 
and little children left their games crying bitterly 
for fathers and for brothers they would never see 
again. 

Venice was a city of the dead, no one was there 
to sing and dance : women had to turn their hands 
to manly avocations, — none repined, and their de- 
votions were redoubled. From noble church, before 
bumble shrine, and out of simple homes arose 
passionate appeals. All the nine patron saints of 
Venice were invoked, along with Christ's gracious 
Mother. They knew that their suppliant cries 
would be as efficacious for the rescue of the Holy 
Places as the deeds of daring of their men. 

The Crusade was a glorious success : wreaths of 
fame crowned the brow of Christian warriors and 
the women of Venice wove garlands of sweetest 
flowers to wind lovingly around their necks. The 
heroes came not however straight home to Venice 

82 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

but went aside to punish the hateful Turk in his 
capital. Doge Dandolo led the attack, but alas, 
with the fall of Constantinople fell many of the 
bravest Venetians, and among them the venerable 
Doge. They buried him in the basilica of Saint 
Sophia and put up his epitaph : — " Mult ere sages et 
proz " — ** One of the wisest and the best of the Sons 
of Venice ! " — and then they set sail for home. It 
was the time of the budding of the rose tree : the 
fresh fragrant blossoms of a new life, — a new world, 
— a new people, — the year 1 205. 

The prelude of the '' Cantata " of the new century 
was pitched in the minor key, but the feeble treble 
of fatherless children harmonised pathetically with 
the full contralto of their mothers : — 

" Miser e nobis infelicissime^ Maria 
Requiescant in pace omnes^ Domine." 

Fathers, brothers, husbands, sons and sweet- 
hearts returned not to Venice. She was once more 
*' Venus Calva'' — Venice, bereft of her stalwart 
sons, stripped of her trusty councillors, naked and 
bereaved. 

" Some lay unshrouded in Palestine, and 
Some lay in the deep. 
For man must go forth to fight and to die 
And women must weep." 

There were many widows in Venice. 



83 



CHAPTER III 



Upon the smiling little islet of San Giorgio in Alga, 
midway between the Punta di Santa Maria — the 
westernmost limit of Venice proper, and Fusina — the 
principal port of the Laguna Morta, there lived, 
once upon a time, a good-looking young fisherman. 
Zian Zorzio della Laguna, — so named after his patron 
Saint, Saint George of Cappadoccia, — as skilful in 
his calling as he was comely in his person. 

Zorzio had wooed and won the prettiest girl in 
all Rialto, as hard-working as himself and as good 
to look upon. One day Bella offered her lover an 
extraordinarily fine fishing-net which she had, un- 
known to him, knotted with her own fair hands ; 
and, Zorzio delighted with the gift, tossing it over 
his shoulder, went off to dedicate it to his saintly 
patron in the island Sanctuary. 

Kissed on both cheeks, coloured with the ripest 
peach-bloom, her golden hair coiled neatly around 
her shapely head, save for one rebellious love-knot 
upon her brow, the beauteous innamorata waved 
loving farewells to her Zorzio as he sculled off in his 
light barca to make trial of his treasure. 

With a daring cast the spider-web-like mesh 
sank beneath the gentle ripples of the lambent 
water, and the young fellow, confident of a worthy 
haul, presently began to pull in his net. " Per 
Bacco ! " cried he, for something eerie had caught 

84 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

itself in the all but invisible strands of Bella's handi- 
work. A piece of petrified sea-weed, — very delicate 
in form, very beautiful in colour, very exquisite in 
texture, verily a scudding flake of opalescent sea- 
foam transformed by the mermaids of the deep into 
lovely coral lace, — yielded itself to his ready hand. 
Zorzio had never beheld such a perfectly beautiful 
object, and in a transport of delight he hailed his 
prize as the pledge of his success in life. Speeding 
homewards in the evening he made Bella the sharer 
of his good fortune, and she locked up the bit of 
coral lace safely in the simple home they had pre- 
pared against the next festival of the " Brides." 

Alas, the even tenor of their lives was rudely 
shattered by a call to arms, and brave Zorzio was 
enrolled among seamen drafted for service in the 
Orient. Broken-hearted Bella surveyed his empty 
seat, and her tears fell fast. Should she ever see 
her Zorzio again she wondered and whispered. 
Looking up at last, her eyes fell upon her lover's 
gift — the lovely spray of coral seaweed. An inspira- 
tion seized her mind, and with alacrity she reached 
down her lace-pillow, and guided by an unseen 
power, she crossed and crossed her bobbins of 
fine thread until she had completed, in interlacing 
arabesques, a similitude of her treasured model. 
Thus was invented the far - famed and precious 
merletto a piombini — the point -lace of Venice. It 
is a charming story and it has a striking moral. 
That piece of coral seaweed was the mascot of the 
Venetian Renaissance. 

In the morning of the *' Vita Nuova " — it was 
the hour of " Lauds," — Commerce, — strenuous father, 
and Industry, — faithful mother, were busy rearing 

85 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

their numerous family — the vigorous progeny of 
the Crafts. Away back in the ninth century, in the 
days of the ''Grand" Doge Agnello Partecipazio, 
the Emperor Lothair issued his " Constitutiones 
Olonenses,'' wherein eight cities and towns of 
Northern Italy are named as suitable centres for 
the establishment of the revived Roman " Collegia " 
or '' Scholce'' \ — Bologna, Cremona, Firenze, Ivrea, 
Milano, Padua, Torino and Rivoalto (Venice). In 
each place the designation of the Scholce varied : in 
Venice they were called "/^r^^z'/z't^;," — from '' Flagelli,'' 
— whips, — the exact meaning of which it is difficult 
to state, perhaps " training schools " wherein learners 
were whipped into shape ! 

Each '' Fragilia'' had its teachers, its pupils, its 
officers, its constitution, its duties, and its bylaws. 
The earliest distinct mention of a " Trade " is in 
826, when a maker of lead pipes for organs was 
working away near San Giacomo di Rialto : doubt- 
less the artificer in question was a Greek, his name 
has not been preserved. Orso Partecipazio em- 
ployed clock-makers in 864 and silversmiths and 
carvers of ivory : these craftsmen were Greeks 
however. The '' CassellarV — makers of arcelle and 
cassoni — formed already a vigorous Corporation in 
the time of the rape of the "Venetian Brides." 
The first notice of '' FabbrV' — blacksmiths, was in 
1 1 84 as forming a '' Fragilia,'' but the Calle de 
Fabbri was a well-known lane in the tenth century. 
The Altino Chronicle names Fishermen, Smiths, 
Saddlers, Carriers by water. Shepherds, Butchers, 
Masons, Carpenters, Cabinetmakers, Shoemakers 
and Furriers as the earliest incorporated crafts- 
men in the islands of the lagunes. '' MarzerV 

S6 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

or silk-mercers were established in Rivoalto in 
942. 

Doge Pietro Polani, in 1143 drafted a "Table 
of Precedence," which established as the premier 
'' Fragilia'' or Trade-Guild, the Corporation of 
Fishermen. Thirty years later Doge Sebastiano 
Ziani set up the first '* Corte delta Giutizia " in the 
interest of traders and operatives. Thereafter 
numerous other Crafts are named in Venetian 
history ; but Venice never attained to the eminence 
of Florence in the development of her Guilds — she 
was sui generis a great sea-port rather than a 
metropolis of industry. The thirteenth century 
first saw the cradle of the Crafts rocking effec- 
tively, — just as the fourteenth furnished the 
nursery of the Fine Arts, — and Venice felt the 
impulse of the new industries, along with the rest 
of Italy. 

Doge Arrigo Dandolo had annexed one-fourth 
of the old Roman Empire to the tutelage of Venice, 
and ten great Turkish galleons brought home, with 
the remnant of her forces, vast treasures, — the loot 
of Constantinople and the islands of the Greek 
Archipelago. Upon the Piazzetta was outpoured 
the wealth of the Levant. Never before had 
Venetian eyes and hands beheld or handled such 
creations of art and craft. Every church and 
monastery, every palace and mansion, and every 
poor man's home, were enriched by things of joy 
and beauty. Mothers and maidens laid up in 
honoured hiding - places tokens of their heroes 
resting in Paradise, and all the sons of Venice 
gathered objects of interest which engrossed their 
intelligences and set their minds and hands at work 

87 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

to imitate — the fall of Constantinople was the rise 
of craftsmanship in the Lagunes. 

The Conquest of Constantinople — a notable 
turning-point in the history of Venice — was the 
initial mark of a new era throughout Europe. By 
common consent every class of the Venetians 
welcomed the promise of new conditions, — social 
and political, — and set to work to exchange Oriental 
ideas and sympathies for the pushful methods and 
modes of Northern and Western Europe. The 
first step was the election of a Doge, who should be, 
not only a desirable figurehead for the State, but 
who, by his force of character and personal experi- 
ence, should lead the Commonwealth along pro- 
gressive ways. 

The qualifications for the Dogado were : (i) 
Ripe age ; (2) Urbane temperament ; (3) Good 
birth ; and (4) Ample private means. One man, 
and one man alone, stood out head-and-shoulders 
above his peers, as possessed of these four qualities, 
a man w^hose thirty years of distinguished public 
service placed him in the unique position of first 
citizen of Venice. By universal acclamation Pietro 
Ziani was chosen to wear the laurel-wreathed 
berretta of the great Dandolo. The son of one of 
the most distinguished of the Doges — Sebastiano 
Ziani — he had borne himself nobly as a successful 
naval commander, a tactful ambassador, and an 
upright magistrate. Handsome above the ordinary, 
pious without hypocrisy, talented in linguistic and 
forensic aptitude, and passionately loyal to the Con- 
stitution, he was calmly awaiting his destiny at his 
country residence at Arbe in Dalmatia. 

A deputation of the Lords of the Council 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

boarded the magnificent '' Bucintoro'' and accom- 
panied by thirty galleys, all splendidly decorated 
with rare brocades and tapestries, set off to meet 
and escort the new Doge. Pietro Ziani's progress 
was a triumphal procession, calling to mind the 
unanimous and felicitous election of Domenigo 
Selvo one hundred and fifty years before. Almost 
the first act of the new regime was the affirmation of 
the cordial relations which his father, Sebastiano, 
had entered into with Guglielmo II. — ''The Good," 
King of Sicily. Dante refers to the death of this 
distinguished Sovereign in Canto XX of the 
Paradiso : — 

" William whom the land bewails 
So well beloved in Heaven." 

In confirmation of the new treaty the new Doge, in 
12 1 3, sought and gained the hand of the Princess 
Costanza, daughter of King Tancredo, Guglielmo's 
son and successor. She was the first Norman 
Dogaressa of Venice, daughter of a brave and 
ardent race, a woman of conspicuous ability and 
ambition, and an ideal consort for the Head of a 
rejuvenated Venice. 

Pietro Ziani had but lately buried his first wife, 
the modest and beautiful Countess Maria Baseggio 
— whose father held the high office of Procurator of 
San Marco — nobilis et decora nimis Maria Dukessa 
— as she is called in the Altino Chronicle. The 
sole offspring of this union was a son, Giorgio, but, 
alas, when yet a child, he was torn to pieces by the 
savage mastiff watch-dogs of the monastery of San 
Giorgio Maggiore. It was said that the Doge was 
so infuriated by this misfortune that he ordered the 

89 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

church and monastery with all the animals, — the 
poor monks as welly — to be consumed with fire : 
one may hope the innocent Religious escaped the 
fury. Anyhow the rest were all burnt, and then the 
remorse of Ziani was pitiable. By way of repara- 
tion he set to work at once to rebuild and re-endow 
what he had so petulantly sacrificed. 

Dogaressa Costanza was handsome and graci- 
ous, and wore her Royal honours with distinction. 
Palazzi wrote thus of her — '' A Queen by birth, 
Dogaressa of Venice by marriage, she exhibited all 
the attributes of her royal station, — she was also 
Duchess of Calabria, — and her high breeding, no 
less than her beauty, raised her above all petty 
jealousies." In the ancient pack of playing-cards, 
at the Venetian Museo Civico, we find her repre- 
sented upon the "Ten of Spades," with the follow- 
ing legend : — '' Costanza, daughter of Tancredo King 
of Naples, wife of Doge Pietro Ziani, was accustomed 
to meet all the malcontents against the Doge and 
herself with the saying : — ' I have nothing to do 
with you ! ' " 

The State being involved in tremendous financial 
difficulties on account of the cost of the Crusades, 
and also in behalf of the purchase of the island of 
Crete, in view of the Doge's great private wealth, — 
'' n haver ZianV was quite as true of Pietro as of 
Sebastiano — reduced his official salary to 2800 lire, 
with 100 thrown in as a free gift. It was further 
decreed that all tributes to the Doge should 
henceforth be shared between him and the treasury 
of San Marco. Moreover he was required to 
make an offering of three silver trumpets for 
ceremonial processions, and to undertake the 

90 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

repairs of the Ducal Palace, — rather a one-sided 
bargain ! 

Fifteen years of marital happiness fell to the lot 
of the Doge and Dogaressa. Three children were 
borne by imperious Costanza — Marco, Marchesina, 
and Maria. Some authorities say that the Dogaressa 
died suddenly in 1228 and that the Doge, broken- 
hearted, followed her within a month. The Altino 
Chronicle however records the abdication of Pietro 
Ziani, and adds that he and his Consort, with their 
family, retired into private life and went to reside in 
their palace upon th.Q fondamento of Santa Giustina, 
where he died, and then received sepulture in the 
church of San Giorgio Maggiore, in the tomb of his 
father Sebastiano. 

There is still a third version of the deaths of 
Doge Pietro and Dogaressa Costanza. In the 
terrible earthquake of 1220, when the church and 
monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore were destroyed, 
and the islands of Amiano and Costanzina swallowed 
up, it was said that many people died of fright, and 
among them the Dogaressa. The Doge, sharing 
the universal sense of insecurity in Venice, pro- 
posed to move the seat of Government to Con- 
stantinople, but, upon the cessation of the seismic 
disturbances, wiser counsels prevailed, and he set to 
work to rebuild the shattered edifices. In 1229 
Pietro Ziani exchanged the silk-brocaded robe of 
State for the worsted habit of a Benedictine, and 
ended his days in the new monastery of San Giorgia 
which he had built. 

During his dogado a year of Jubilee was appointed 
by the Pope — 12 14 — in thankfulness for the general 
peace ; and every Italian State held festivals and 

91 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

fetes. Treviso led the way, for nothing could exceed 
the beauty and the human interest of the '' Marca 
Amorosa'' The centre of the most fruitful and 
delightful region of all Northern Italy, Treviso, with 
her borders, was renowned for the richness of her 
vegetation, the salubrity of her climate, the beauty 
of her women, and chivalry of her cavaliers. The 
rallying-point too of knights and champions from the 
vigorous Teutonic north and the vivacious Prankish 
west Treviso was the fascinating rendezvous of all 
that was romantic, brave and fair. 

The Crusades had been the making of the 
soldiery of all Europe, — not indeed in the elements 
of warfare but in the courtesies of the battle-field. 
Men went forth to fight the Saracen and the Turk 
to vindicate the nobility of the Cross and the gentle- 
ness of the Son of Mary. For the weak and the 
oppressed they gave and took sword-thrust and 
arrow-tip, and not as men fighting men alone. 
Heroes returned to Venetian, Trevisan and Paduan 
homes famous for their valour and their virtue : the 
Crusades were schools of Christian chivalry. To 
fight for women and for children in Palestine meant 
to honour and exalt those of their own dear land, but 
this was quite a new idea. Saint Mary and the 
Saints of God held the hands of their own babes and 
youths, the hands of their own girls and women, and 
men worshipped at human shrines as well as in 
saintly sanctuaries. 

Treviso put forth her best efforts in the way of 
pageant, spectacle, and mask — albeit she did not 
forget to dress her altars, light her candles, and burn 
her incense, in honour of the Jubilee. In the centre 
of the Piazza della Spineda, the Guild of Carpenters 

92 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

erected a grandiose palace — "Castle of Love" it 
was named, overlaid with gilding and painting, and 
decorated with rich silk velvets, costly furs, and 
precious tapestries. Trophies from Palestine and 
spoils from Constantinople were raised aloft, with 
rose-trees full of roses, myrtles in white flower, and 
jessamine, the marriage bloom, and many another 
decorative feature. All this bravery was the mise- 
en- scene for such a castle garrison as no knight's 
eyes had beheld nor indeed his heart imagined. 

Two hundred of the fairest damsels of Treviso 
and Padua, and with them not a few noble matrons 
of attractive personality, manned or shall we say 
"womaned" the lofty battlements. Dressed in most 
becoming garbs and covered with jewels, with faces 
painted and hair coiffured in exquisite taste, the 
fascinating amazons have at hand no weapons or 
grenades of lethal warfare, but baskets of sweet 
flowers, cornucopias of ripe fruit, and crystal vases 
filled with delicious scents, ready for the besiegers. 

Three Companies in turn assault the '' Castle of 
Beauty" — gallant knights and esquires of Venice, 
Padua, and Treviso. Strange are their battle-cries. 
Lately singing Litanies to the Saints, their lips have 
learned compelling dulcet tones, as they have prayed 
at or for the Holy Sepulchre, and now they again 
give forth the refrain " Or a pro Nobis'' — addressed 
not to St Giustina, St Catherine, or St Barbara, but 
to Donna Beatrice, Donna Fioretta, Donna Felicita, 
and to all the beauteous two hundred ! 

Amid the plaudits of thousands of spectators on 
pavement, in window, on balcony, on roof, drawn 
from all the plains of Lombardy the Company of 
Treviso — as gallant goodly lads as ever donned 

93 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

tight hose and well-shaped tunic, — deliver the first 
attack, making trial of their knighthood. Appealing 
to the tender unsullied hearts of the fair defenders 

of the Castle, with gentle words, they shower such 
things as affect most the eye of woman — lovely 
flowers, amorous billets-doux, and delicate scent- 
sachets. Xot so can thev o^ain the battlements, and 
falling back, the second line of attack is opened out 
by the Company from Padua. Clever pleasant youths 
are thev and full of artistic fancies, well oroomed too, 
thev rallv to the charore with such thino-s as mav 
please their ladies" palates. — boxes of expensive 
sweetmeats, baskets of delicious fruits, and fresh 
rissoles of fish and chicken. The fair ones catch all 
they can. but yield not their portcullis. Now comes 
the turn of the fresh-complexioned, well-flgured. fair- 
haired, silent, haughty young \'enetians. They step 
boldlv forward, in silken ti2:hts. each lad a lord in 
self-esteem : they have special ammunition for their 
service, attractive to all the senses of woman-kind, — 
scented walnuts,, Oriental sweeties, and sugared rose- 
leaves, but, in their scarlet satchels they have a 
wealth of good gold ducats, and with them the day 
is won. for the maidens toss the glittering spoil from 
hand to hand and lauo-h and sino- rio-ht merrilv I 

But before the conquerors can carr}- off their 
bewitching prisoners, the defeated warriors rally to 
the call of "Down with \'enice."' and rush the 
standard-bearers. In a trice the red banner of 
San ^larco is trailino- on the o-round and the 
Venetians have whipped out their swords I Messer 
Paolo da Sermedole. the Master of the Pageant, 
and his assistants inter\-ene, and the tears of the 
captured maidens arrest the flow of blood, but the 

94 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Venetians leave the '' Marca Amorosa " vowing 
vengeance for the insult. War was declared forth- 
with against the sister cities and the end of it came 
not till two years had passed, when at Bebe near 
Chioggia, the Paduans accepted the Venetian terms. 
Doge Pietro Ziani stipulated, as a condition of 
peace, that twenty-five Paduan Knights, who had 
participated in the ''Marca Amorosa'' at Treviso, 
should present themselves at the Ducal Palace, 
submissive to the orders of his Serenity. 

In Venice the gallant Company was welcomed 
right nobly, as became magnanimous foes, feasted 
for ten days, and well laden with costly presents, 
and so were speeded home again. History has not 
exactly told us whether any, or all of that gallant 
band, took away things more precious still than 
the splendid offerings, — the hearts of Venetian 
maidens ! The revenge of the conquered, in 
true chivalry, is the spoiling of the conqueror. 
Anyhow at least one Venetian bride was led away 
to Padua, and with her went a goodly trousseau : — 
*' One bed, two down-quilts, a whole piece of scarlet 
* noble ' cloth, four linen sheets, two feather pillows, 
two striped silk petticoats, two robes, or gowns, of 
silk brocade, four bodices of lawn, one fur mantle 
with silver buttons, one silver bell, a silver rosary, 
seven ornaments of gold, two of pearls, a coronal 
of pearls, seven fine amber beads, etc., etc." 

When she reached Padua the bride was to 
receive from her husband a purse full of money, to 
pay for musicians at the home-coming, for the 
cooks, and for her chaperon — one Donna Rlcci- 
doni — and for herself she might retain twelve silver 
soldi as pin-money. The bridegroom was mulcted 

95 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

at the same time in dealings in beef, veal, fresh fish 
and fruit, cakes, eggs, bread, wine and oil, and for 
the payment of the boatmen who had rowed them 
up the Brenta. Alas the chronicler in the 
'' Arckivio'' has failed to give the names of the 
interesting couple, but apparently Venice and Padua 
were at one upon the question of matrimony ! 



" Maridite I Maridite ! Donzela ; 
Che do7ia maridada e sempre bela : 
Maridite I finche la foglia e verde^ 
PercJu la zoventu presto se perde ! " 

Venetian " Barcarolle." 

(" Marry ! Marry ! pretty maid, 
Lest ye lose your youth and fade — 
The young girl's her husband's Queen 
Marry whilst the leaves are green ! ") 



II 



The last years of Doge Pietro Ziani were em- 
bittered by the rivalries of the families of Tiepolo 
and Dandolo — partisans of both sides eagerly grasp- 
ing the Ducal chair, and impatient of the demise of 
its occupant. The Doge and Dogaressa were so 
worried and oppressed by these unseemly conten- 
tions that he executed a deed of abdication, and 
returned to his private residence, leaving the distin- 
guished but thankless office to be filled by another. 
Giacomo Tiepolo represented the old ideas and 
Marino Dandolo the new, and the votes of the 
Council were equally divided ; but at last, a majority 
was found for the former. Tiepolo was out and 
away the most enlightened and intellectual man of 

96 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

his time. He came of an ancient family, one of the 
*' Apostolic" order of nobility — ''Teupolo" in the 
old spelling, and originally from Rome. Bartoldo 
Teupolo, the head of the family in 697, was one 
of the electors of Doge Paolo Lucio Anafesto. In 
1204, when so many Venetian nobles assumed 
territorial titles of sovereignty over islands in the 
Greek Archipelago consequent upon the fall of 
Constantinople, Giacomo Tiepolo was named 
Duke of Candia. His father was Lorenzo, 
Procurator of San Marco in 1207, and Podesta 
of Treviso. 

" Duke" Tiepolo took to wife Maria Storlato — 
a Venetian gentlewoman of no high degree, but a 
good and faithful spouse and mother. She was 
received as Dogaressa the day of Giacomo's election 
in 1228, but alas, she died in 1240, having given 
him three sons as pledges of her devotion — Pietro, 
Lorenzo, and Giovanni. The eldest became Count 
of Sant' Agostino and Podesta of Milan and Treviso, 
but, being taken prisoner by the Emperor Frederic 
II., he was treacherously beheaded. 

A two years' widowerhood found the Doge once 
more at the feet of an attractive woman, not indeed 
a simple Venetian maiden but a Princess of Royal 
degree, — Valdrada, the daughter of King Tancredo 
of Sicily. The new Dogaressa, like her brother 
King Ruggero, was famed for good commonsense, 
and sound probity of life, and she assumed at once 
an unquestioned control over the actions of her 
Consort, strong man though he was. Like her 
sister, the Dowager Dogaressa Costanza, she was a 
virago, in the sense of a strong personality ; and she 
followed in her sister's steps, ruling not alone her 
G 97 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

husband, but bending to her will all with whom she 
was thrown in contact. 

Perhaps the new Dogaressas ostentation of 
Regal rank in the Venetian Court was a decisive 
factor in the promulgation of what was called the 
'' Promts stone''' — perhaps best translated by the 
French term, Protocol — of 1242, the provisions of 
which greatly restricted the power and liberty of the 
Doge and Dogaressa. The Doge was henceforth 
to be, not the executive Head of the State, but the 
executor of the orders of the Council. Acts of 
homage were no longer to be rendered to him, nor 
was he to be addressed as '' Domine Dominus'' 
In times gone by the deputation of nobles, com- 
missioned to acquaint a new Doge of his election, 
were accustomed to greet him thus : — ** Welcome, 
Messer Doge, God give you Messer Doge a good 
morrow, we are come to dine with you, we await 
your orders, and we wish to kiss your hand." The 
Dogaressa also shared the new restrictive conven- 
tions, and neither relatives of hers, nor of the Doge, 
were eligible for any public office. Their household 
was limited — only twenty-five free retainers were 
allowed and a like number of unpaid dependent 
slaves. 

'' II Statuto di Giacomo Tiepolo,'' or '' II Statute 
Veneto,'' as it was called, was a compilation, by 
Doge Tiepolo, of laws in five books, which treated 
of the domestic relations of married people. The 
husband was required to render an account to his 
wife of his use of her dowry, and the capital sum 
remained in her power to will as she chose. An 
unfaithful wife forfeited her dowry, but a widow 
enjoyed her husband's patrimony till her second 

98 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

marriage or death. If ever a couple decided to 
renounce secular life and enter Religion, the united 
property was shared equally, each being free to do 
what he or she liked with the money. Children, if 
any and under age, were provided for equally by 
each parent. Many sections of the " Statuto " dealt 
with the vexed questions of Slavery and Prostitution 
— all aiming at the amelioration and moralisation of 
manners. 

Doge Giacomo Tiepolo's time was much occu- 
pied with the settlement of internal jealousies and 
factions, and by the conduct of naval and military 
expeditions. While he was so employed Dogaressa 
Valdrada gave her whole time to the patronage 
and support of the Trade Corporations — a role 
maintained by all her successors. 

At length,, in 1209, the Doge, wearied alike by 
the exertions of his foreign enterprises and by the 
keenness of political rivalries at home, executed a 
deed of abdication, and, with Dogaressa Valdrada 
and her two young children retired to his private 
residence at Sant' Agostino, in the sestiere of San 
Polo or Paolo. He did not long survive his retire- 
ment from office, and both he and his Consort, who 
outlived him three years, were buried in SS. Gio- 
vanni e Paolo. In every sense of the word Giacomo 
Tiepolo — '* The Legislator " — was a '' Grand " Doge 
— the sixth upon whom that title may be properly 
bestowed. 

In his ''Stones of Venice'' Ruskin tells a well- 
known and characteristic story of Doge Giacomo 
Tiepolo. The noble church of SS. Giovanni e 
Paolo — San Zanipolo in the vernacular — was begun 
by the monks of San Domenigo in the year 1234, 

99 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

under the patronage of the Tiepolo family. Three 
years before Giacomo was called upon to succeed 
Pletro Ziani, he dreamed a dream wherein he 
beheld all the ground around the rising building 
covered with rose-bushes in full and fragrant bloom. 
Flitting to-and-fro and imbibing the floral nectar 
were numbers of white doves with golden crosses 
upon their breasts. Whilst the dreamer wondered 
what it all meant forty angelic beings appeared out 
of a crimson cloud, bearing in their hands smoking 
censers, and, circling around the lovely garden, they 
flune hither and thither their sweet incense smoke. 
Then a rich clarion voice proclaimed from some- 
where above the rose-trees : — '' This is the place I 
have chosen for my preachers." The solemn words 
awoke the sleeper, and he went straightway to the 
Council and declared what he had seen and heard. 
They agreed to grant forty paces of ground for the 
extension of the monastery and Messer Tiepolo, out 
of his private munificence, endowed the brotherhood 
with a noble revenue. 

Upon either side of the entrance of the church 
are the two Roman sarcophagi, in which were 
interred the bodies of Doge Giacomo and his son 
Doge Lorenzo Tiepolo. Ever after Doge Giacomo 
Tiepolo's solemn obsequies the bodies of all the 
Venetian Doges and many of the Dogaressas were 
laid in State and their funeral rites were performed 
within the choir of the great Dominican church. 

Marco, or Marino Morosini's dogado (i 249-1 252), 
was quite uneventful, except for the establishment 
of the Holy Inquisition in Venice. Its operations 
however were only allowed upon sufferance, and its 
decrees required the impri77tattir of the Council 

100 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

before being carried into effect. Doge Morosini, 
nearly seventy years of age at the time of the 
election, was of venerable appearance, amiable dis- 
position, and irreproachable character. His Con- 
sort's name has not been preserved. He is 
credited with the initiation of the Scola de Battitoriy 
— Guild of Flagellants, — which attracted very many 
of the more devout of the citizens. Men and 
women were equally affected by this call to 
asceticism, and were accustomed to lash themselves 
both publicly and in private with ''Scope'' birch- 
rods or ''disciplines," whilst they sang Miserere 
and other doleful chants ! The furore had a brief 
duration, for the commonsense of all classes checked 
exhibitions of infatuation. There was however one 
admirable feature in the movement — the devotion 
of vast sums of money, rich lands, and fine houses, 
to the cause of charity : in one year (1251), 80,000 
lire were contributed to deserving objects, and the 
'' Battitori'' numbered at least 12,000. 

Marco Morosini was buried with full honours, 
clad in State robes with his jewelled sword by his 
side, whilst women made loud lamentations and 
men forsook their avocations to touch his bier, 
and pray for his soul. These solemn burial scenes 
were swiftly followed by the gorgeous installation 
ceremony of the new Doge — Reniero Zeno (1252- 
1268). 

Where had been scattered branches of yew and 
cypress, and where had swayed great lengths of 
dismal black cloth, now flaunted in the fresh sea- 
breeze, the emblazoned banners of the '' Fragilie'' 
and the splendid silk draperies of the nobles, whilst 
garlands of freshly woven fragrant blossoms shed 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

their painted petals upon the path where along a 
comely Dogaressa was borne by gallant escort to 
the Palace. There was just one ''fly in the 
ointment " of satisfaction — for Loicia da Prata, — as 
attractive as any of her predecessors, indeed she 
had charms surpassed by few, — was alas from 
Friuli, and " nothing good for Venice," it was said, 
*' ever came thence ! " 

The new Doge belonged to the most recent 
order of the nobility, that composed of men whose 
ancestors had purchased their patents in celebration 
of the last war with Candia — the Videmani, Labio, 
Zenobio, Fini, Manini, Gambarri, Zeno, and others. 
Whether Messir Reniero, the son of Ser Pietro 
Zeno, possessed all the qualifications sought in the 
person of the Head of the State we know not, but 
we know that he was a man of great wealth — 
perhaps, as times went then and as they go now, the 
most valuable consideration ! This being so, the 
Council considered it a favourable opportunity for 
further curtailing the privileges of the Doge and 
Dogaressa, for, by the way, it was a certainty that 
they would be the recipients of considerable offer- 
ings on behalf of the Trade Corporations, seeing 
that the Doge was engaged in active commercial 
pursuits and was a great employer of labour. 

By the new " Promts stone " the Doge, the 
Dogaressa, their sons and daughter, and daughters- 
in-law, were debarred from receiving food stuffs, 
cattle and horses, poultry and game, etc., etc., except 
upon due payment. The Dogaressa was directed 
not to promise situations or offices to those who 
sought her aid, nor to write recommendations of 
such suppliants to the Doge or to the Council, and 

I02 




DOGE RENTER ZENO AND DOGARESSA LUICIA DI PRATA. 

Palma II Giovine. 



ORATORIO DE' CROCIFERI, VENICE. 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

also not to make gifts to any official dependant. If 
she bestowed her patronage upon Craftsmen they 
were forbidden to make capital out of it. On the 
other hand, no limits were put to the private 
charities of her Serenity, and, as Dogaressa 
Loicia was famed for her benevolence, this freedom 
of action granted to her by the Promissione, had an 
astute and sly significance. As a matter of fact she 
did exhibit her piety in a remarkable way by the 
erection and endowment of a Hospital, upon the 
site originally occupied by that of Doge Pietro 
Orseolo II., with an Oratory, — Oratorio del 
Crocifisso, — still in existence near the great 
Campanile of San Marco. 

During the dogado of Reniero Zeno, in 1255, a 
writ was put forth by the Government regulating 
the marriages of nobles and citizens. Banns of 
marriage had been asked, time out of mind in all 
the Venetian churches, but gradually they had 
ceased to be regarded as necessary, and clandestine 
unions were the fashion. A priest had come to be 
regarded as at anybody's beck and call, whether in 
a public consecrated building or in the privacy of 
the domestic parlour ; and, instead of many sponsors, 
one witness was deemed sufficient. Often as not a 
priestly personage was not requisitioned at all — 
times were easy, so were manners. 

Quite a characteristic and amusing story has been 
preserved illustrating the new mode of wedding con- 
tracts. Madonna Catarussa of San Gervaso, linger- 
ing one evening at her house door, awaiting her late 
home-coming spouse, was accosted by one, Ser 
Pierino da Trento, an itinerant seller of brooms and 
brushes. Noting the Madonna's abstraction he 

103 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

passed a courteous greeting: — "Good Lady," he 
said, '' can you find a poor devil like me a pretty 
girl I wonder ? " Madonna Catarussa was indignant 
and used pretty freely not too pretty Venetian 
expletives ! 

''No! no! not that dear Lady, not that," inter- 
jected Ser Pierino, *' I mean marriage now and 
honourable, a little wife and a modest dowry ! " 

''Well, well, if that be your true wish I will see 
what I can do. Come again to-morrow about this 
time. Fare you well fond lover ! " 

Madonna Catarussa knew well a very charming 
girl, just what the amorous pedlar wanted, — Donna 
Marina Contarini. She broached the subject of Ser 
Pierino's commission, and because he was of good 
reputation and withal a good-looking fellow, the girl 
agreed to the assignation. Without delay or pre- 
paration, upon the morrow, in Madonna Catarussa's 
best parlour, the couple met and with them one, 
Menigo Moise, a friend of the Madonna, prepared 
to carry out an impromptu matrimonial ro/e. 

" Ser Pierino, does Donna Marina suit you ? — 
Donna Marina, does Ser Pierino please you ? — Say 
ye both " — asked he. 

A ready double "Yes" sprang from the nuptial 
couple and promptly and with glee Ser Moise 
joined their hands. Thereafter congratulations 
were showered upon the newly-married pair, and a 
merry party sat down to a hearty wedding break- 
fast. Company is never wanting when marriage 
festivities are on the go, and so it was in Madonna 
Catarussa's caUe — perhaps Ser Giovanni was at sea 
— fishing ! 

Doge Zeno died in 1208, but Dogaressa Loicia 
104 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

survived him many years. He left to her absolutely 
the bulk of his property and she continued to reside 
in the great Casa Zeno, whence she administered the 
munificent gifts he and she had made to religious 
bodies, to churches and hospitals. At her death, — 
the date is not recorded, — she devised her personal 
effects for the benefit of her Ospedale di Santa 
Maria per gV Incur abili, namely bedding, mat- 
tresses, coverlets, gowns, furs, her nuptial chests, 
plumes of feathers, six reading easels, chests of 
medicines, and very many personal and domestic 
comforts. Thus the attractive, virtuous, and 
benevolent Dogaressa passed quietly, and we may 
hope peacefully, from the people and the scenes she 
loved so well. Many warm hearts beat for her and 
salt tears fell, for she was well beloved in Venice. 



Ill 



Lorenzo Tiepolo mounted the Ducal throne in 
1268, with a splendid, well-nigh unique, reputation, 
and he sustained its dignity admirably for seven 
eventful years. He was the Head of a strong and 
wealthy republic, which, surrounded with high 
honours, was rejoicing in every kind of delight and 
ostentation. The son of a *' Grand" Doge, blessed 
by his father's reputation, renowned for his personal 
bravery and courtesy, and endowed with the where- 
withal to minister to his own luxuries and to the 
dissipations of a brilliant court without restraint, the 
second Tiepolo Doge was the man of the moment, 
the plaything of fortune. 

Venice was like a spoilt woman, dowered with 
105 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

beauty and ability, jealous of her freedom, a fierce 
foe to her enemies, a dangerous vixen to her friends, 
loving adulation, commanding obedience, proud, 
selfish, cruel, and revengeful — this was the Venice 
which Lorenzo, the champion of the Giostre had to 
control. The spirit of the time was wholly favour- 
able to the new Doge's government. Harmony 
and healthful rivalry existed between the craftsmen 
and the masters. In 1271 the Gastaldi — Heads 
of Guilds — met under the presidency of the Doge ; 
and agreed to devote a goodly portion of their 
Guild revenues to the relief of the poor and sick, 
provide pensions for the widows and families of 
deceased members, attend funerals, and keep the 
lamps burning in their Guild Chapels. They gave, 
as their incentive to these pious works, the senten- 
tious aphorism : — '' Stare in lo amor di Dio e di 
Santa PaxeT 

Venetians loved music, dancing, birds, and 
flowers. Picnics were held in the gardens of 
Murano, in the orchards of San Giorgio Maggiore, 
in the vineyards of San Zaccaria, in the olive-yards 
of Malamocco, and by the aviaries of San Giobbe. 
Everyone had his own garden, — great or small, — 
and in it rare exotics mingled with homely plants. 
At all windows and balconies were boxes of carna- 
tions and cages full of singing birds. Venice too 
was the shop of Europe, whether for tasty culinary 
delicacies or for the fashionable fripperies of the 
fair sex. All the good things of the East were 
displayed upon her fundamenti and in her markets. 
The banquets she set before her guests were 
sumptuous and unrivalled : the beef of Aquileia, 
the veal of Chioggia, and the pork of Friuli were 

106 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

as famous as the sausages of Bologna. Her wines,, 
her fruits, and her sweetmeats were celebrated. 

Two meals a day were the rule in Doge Lorenzo 
Tiepolo's time — dinner before noon, supper between 
seven and eight. For dinner, the better classes had 
soup, — -grasso or magro, — fish and meat with vege- 
tables, fruit, cakes, and wine. Elegant little baskets 
of silver and gold were placed upon the tables filled 
with freshly-made sweetmeats. The poorer people's 
dietary was chiefly fish, bread, oil, and fruit, — meat 
was beyond their means and vegetables were also 
dear. 

The Venetians had not been noted for refinement 
of manners, in fact they had rather prided themselves 
that they were ''less effeminate" than their neigh- 
bours on the mainland ; but, under the patronage 
and example of the foreign modes of the nobles and 
richer citizens, there sprang up, in the middle of the 
thirteenth century, a marked improvement with a 
corresponding growth of courtesy. Very quaintly a 
worthy friar of Milan, Bonvesino da Riva, drew out a 
" Table of Etiquette." *' Thou shalt remember," he 
wrote, "the poor when thou sittest at table. Thou 
shalt be gentle in offering water for the hands. Thou 
shalt not eat nor drink to excess. Thou shalt sit 
easily, show courtesy, be cheerful, thy dress well 
arranged. Thou shalt not fill thy mouth too full. 
Thou shalt take thy cup of wine and put it to thy 
lips with both hands, so as not to spill any, and, 
when thou hast moderately drank, thou shalt not 
pass it on to another but place it carefully upon the 
table. If thou shalt happen to sneeze or cough, draw 
thyself away a little, never complain of the seasoning 
of the dishes. Thou must not soak thy bread in thy 

107 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

wine. Thou shalt always offer thy guest the best 
cut. Thou shalt be scrupulous about the cleanliness 
of thy servants ; thou and they must always have 
clean hands. Thou shalt not thrust thy hands into 
thy mouth nor pick thy teeth. Thou shalt not fondle 
thy neck, nor thine ears. At table thou shalt not 
relate sad news. ..." x\nd so the writer oroes on 
giving excellent lessons in good deportment. 

Lorenzo Tiepolo had made himself a great name 
before he came to the dogado. He had humbled 
Genoa and in the East he had commanded a victori- 
ous Venetian fleet which had brought back twenty- 
five prize galleys, great stores of booty, and above 
all, the venerated body of Santa Saba. In 1264 he 
was Podesta of Padua, and, when there, he married 
Donna Agnese Ghisi, whose family held the titular 
marquisate of Stampiala in the Greek Archipelago. 
She gave her husband two sons who, when grown, 
married, Giacomo, — a princess of Dalmatia, and 
Pietro, — a rich countess of Vincenza. Very little is 
known about Dogaressa Agnese except that she was 
a patroness of Hospitals and a friend of those in 
distress. Out of her dowry she endowed a Maternity 
and Lying-in Hospital for poor women, and a 
Hostel for prisoners condemned to death. The good 
Dogaressa went by the gracious title — '' La Donna 
delta Misericordia^ 

Soon after the death of his first wife Lorenzo 
Tiepolo married again. The Venetians, whilst con- 
trolling the privileges and the liberty of the Consort 
of the Doge, were exigent that he should have a 
spouse, if for no other reason, than as an additional 
ornament to the State. The new Dogaressa was 
Marchesina, daughter of Boemondo da Brienne, 

108 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

King of Rascia and Servia, who was brother of the 
Emperor John. If we have no authentic portrait of 
her, Palazzi's pack of cards in the Museo Civico 
has upon the "Nine of Clubs": — '' Dogaressa 
Thiepolo aggrandisce ed arrichisce cole noze la prole 
Nobilita langue ove ricchezzo manca.'' Perhaps 
briefly Englished '' A noble and a wealthy heiress ! " 

The recognition ceremonies of the new Dogaressa 
were accompanied by a splendid pageant two days 
later. Whilst the citizens were content to leave all 
matters of State policy and the details of the 
Administration to the governing class, represented 
by the Doge without demur, to the Dogaressa, 
craftsmen looked for protection and patronage in 
the prosecution of their industries. Accordingly 
the Gastaldiy or Masters of the several Guilds, — 
there were just thirty of them, — met in Council, 
and resolved to arrange an exhibition of their 
various Crafts at the Ducal Palace in honour of the 
new Dogaressa. 

To accompany her Serenity to her Coronation 
and to secure her presence at the inauguration of 
the Exhibition a huge procession set off to the 
Tiepolo palace, which Doge Giacomo had enlarged 
and decorated so lavishly. Headed by banners and 
trumpets and drums first march the '* Smiths" with 
garlands upon their heads ; next the '' Furriers," 
wearing costly furs ; the '' Wool- weavers " followed, 
— an imposing detail of the pageant, — singing 
ballads to the accompaniment of horns and cymbals,, 
and carrying silver goblets and flasks full of red 
wine. Fourth in order came the ''Tailors" in 
white garments covered with scarlet stars and over 
their shoulders cloaks lined with fur; ''Woollen-^ 

109 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

drapers " succeeded with branches of olives in their 
hands and olive crowns upon their heads — the 
Masters of the Craft wore fustian mantles ; '* Makers 
of Doublets and Coverlets " were ranged alongside, 
wearing white capes sewn with blue lilies. The 
eighth Guild by reason of the costliness of its manu- 
factures commanded universal admiration — the 
'* Makers of gold and silver cloth," — whose members 
wore caps decorated with fine filigree work and 
sewn with pearls ; following came the '' Shoe- 
makers," the '' Mercers," — clothed from head to foot 
in silk ; the " Pork-butchers," in scarlet cloaks lined 
with vair ; the ''Glass-blowers" and the " Carding- 
comb Makers " made way for a gorgeous detach- 
ment — the '' Goldsmiths," adorned with gems and 
precious stones. It would be tedious to name all 
the '' Trades " in that vast procession, which wound 
up with the '' Barber-surgeons," who certainly made 
the most of their opportunity. They marched with 
their heads dressed in the latest fashion and wearing 
gold ornaments and pearls. Two mounted men, in 
the armour of Knight-errants, conducted four lovely 
young girls in white, their rich golden hair all over 
their shoulders, and each supposed to represent one 
of the four great foreign States, — France, Germany, 
Spain and England. 

Having passed under the windows of the 
Dogaressa, the two Knights dismounted and ad- 
dressed her Serenity as follows : — '' Duchess, we are 
two wandering Knights, and we have ridden forth in 
search of adventures and have carried off from per- 
secution and wrong these noble maidens. Now if 
there should be any warriors who will come forth to 
prove their valour, we are prepared to defend the 

no 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

damsels and sustain our honour." The Dogaressa 
smiled her approval, and waved her hand that she 
was ready to accompany her honourable escort to the 
Palace. 

Taking her place by the side of the Doge she 
received the courteous salutation of the assembled 
nobles, and then passed through the ante-room and 
reached the Hall of Exhibition, where she was 
received by the Masters and Officials of the Guilds, 
and from whom, in spite of all '' PromissionV she 
accepted characteristic presents. To each Master 
she addressed a few pleasant words and invited him 
to sup with her that night in the Ducal Palace, whilst 
the Doge entertained the Lords of the Council and 
other Dignitaries of State. 

The Dogaressa Marchesina was part-founder in 
1272 of the celebrated Ca' di Dio — House of God 
— for the reception of ladies of good birth but reduced 
to poverty. Hitherto such unfortunate gentlewomen 
had been cared for along with the widows of crafts- 
men, and they felt keenly the degradation : they 
were certainly '' the poor who feel shame." Not 
many years elapsed before the joy of prosperity in 
Venice was turned into the sorrow of want — the 
splendid hospitalities of the Ducal Palace gave place 
to plain spreads for starving people. Famine followed 
feasting and Doge and Dogaressa were occupied 
with the leading nobles in dealing with scarcity and 
unemployment. 

Doge Lorenzo Tiepolo died in 1275, and Marino 
da Canale, the chronicler, wrote of him: — "There 
was no one in all the Venetian nation who did not 
lament with reason the loss of such an excellent 
ruler." He was buried with his father, and his 

III 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

brother Giovanni, at SS. Giovanni e Paolo. Of 
the Dogaressa Marchesina's death and burial we 
have found no record. 

Lorenzo Tiepolo's successor, Giacomo Contarini, 
— a member of a prominent family of the *' Apostolic " 
order of nobility, — was in every way an estimable 
man and not suspected of any ulterior aims with 
respect to the aggrandisement of his family. Never- 
theless the Government demanded sworn promises 
that "neither he nor Madonna Jacobina, his spouse, 
should accept any fee or fief, nor undertake com- 
missions of any kind and, in particular, that the 
Dogaressa should on no account contract debts 
with the citizens nor enter into speculations, in 
salt, cheese, or wine ! " 

The Doge was forbidden to hold land outside 
Venice, his sons were forbidden to marry foreign 
wives, except with the approval of the Council 
(two were already married and the third was a 
Religious), and whatever was required for the 
Ducal household was ordered to be paid for within 
eight days. The Dogaressa and her daughters 
were expressly prohibited from receiving gifts or 
samples from tradesmen. In other respects the 
dogado of Contarini was uneventful, and after a 
short reign of five years in 1280 he abdicated his 
office, and retired into private life upon a pension 
of fifteen hundred lire di piccioli, — a beggarly sum 
indeed, but he was glad enough of it, for he was 
a poor man, perhaps the least wealthy of all the 
Doges, though he came of a wealthy family. 

How Dogaressa Jacobina submitted to the 
severe restrictions upon her liberty of action we 
know not, nor indeed anything whatever about 

112 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

her, except her name. The Doge died shortly- 
after his vacation of office, and was buried quietly 
in the church of the Frati Minori, — Santa Maria 
Gloriosa de' Frari, — in a marble sarcophagus which 
was enriched with mosaic figures of the Doge 
and Dogaressa upon their knees, — comely in their 
lives : in death they were undivided. The epitaph 
is very brief: — '' Heic requiescit Dominus Jacobus 
Contarinus, Dux inclytus Venetiarwn, et Domina 
Jacobina, ejus uxor^ Ducissa!' 

Bearing a great name Giovanni Dandolo a 
descendant of the "Grand" Doge Arrigo Dandolo 
was peacefully living at his country villa at Arbe 
in Dalmatia, — that favourite resort for wealthy 
Venetians who there could indulge in the chiefest 
of their hobbies the cultivation of flower gardens, 
and fruit orchards, and in the pleasures of the 
chase, — when news of Doge Contarini's abdication 
reached him. Apparently neither he nor his good 
spouse were unprepared for a summons home, for 
they started towards Venice before the deputation of 
nobles sent to salute them reached their domicile. 

The new Doge had all the high moral tone, 
firmness, and energy, of his great ancestor, but he 
was lame and somewhat uncourtly in his manner. 
Morose in disposition and possessed of peculiar 
habits, he seemed to be hardly the sort of man 
for the onerous post to which he was called, more- 
over he was credited with democratic tendencies. 

The times were tranquil and, as a consequence, 
prosperous, and Venice and the Venetians were 
approaching the zenith of success. She was the 
emporium of the world : the business of all Europe 
and of the East was transacted in and about the 
H 113 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Piazza di San Giacomo di Rialto. Each trading 
nation had its warehouses and its consular staff. 
In front of the Fondaco de Tedeschi, just beyond 
the bridge, were anchored ships from Northern 
ports, and upon the wharves were dumped all 
sorts of foreign merchandise. Higher up the 
canal were fleets of orreat baro^es laden with casks 
of oil and wine. The Fimdamefita Toscana was 
filled with Florentine merchants and choice wares 
from Tuscany, the Fondaco de Tier c hi and the 
Campo de i\Iori, were thronged with traders from 
the radiant East. Jews and x-\rmenians traversed 
calli and rive at will, bartering their commodities. 

Right away from the Rialto bridge to the Piazza 
di San Marco, all along the IMerceria, were shops 
overflowing with costly objects, rare perfumes, and 
the latest modes. There strutted young gallants 
of Venice with slender, o-raceful fionares, fair-haired, 
and clad in well-fitting hosen and tunics, richly 
trimmed, with natty shoes and jaunty red berrette, 
peering as they sidled up and down into screened 
doorways for revelations of feminine charms and 
fashions. -If, as it was said, matrons frequented that 
famous rendezvous to study mannikins draped to 
show forth the smartest costumes, and ostentatiously 
to give their alms, we may be sure maidens, perhaps 
clandestinely, found themselves there too, w^ith 
their white veils coyly arranged to please their 
admirers — young and old. 

Giovanni Dandolo splashed no red mark upon 
the escutcheon of the City, the white lily of a virtu- 
ous life was not denied him, but he wearied of his 
dignity, and, in 1289, retired to his restful home 
in Dalmatia, and there he lived till 1320. When 

114 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

dying he left by will to his lamenting consort, the 
Dogaressa Caterina, ''many chests full of fair linen, 
vests, shawls, and coverlets, with a couple of ningoli 
— chemises (?), and many other things." The wear- 
ing of under linen was unusual then, and, be it said 
sotto voce, little care was taken in the matter of clean- 
liness — the wearer went on wearing till the garments 
were worn out! A Sonetto, written about the 
Venetians, by Antonio Beccario da Ferrara, refers 
amusingly to this peccadiglio : — 

" I^un s'no da mutar lur pani lini 
E chd mantegli vannu dimezatti^ 
Forton soleie chahertti. 
Tal che impegna boriz e cholterlini.'''' 

The chemise — and its complement — were luxuries in 
the year 1307, when Donna Sofia Battango, in her 
will, bequeathed one of each garment, with special 
injunctions, to two of her dearest friends — Donne 
Reni and Donadi. 

Dogaressa Caterina Dandolo survived her 
husband many years and died, if the record may be 
believed in 1341, when she must have been quite a 
centenarian. At any rate there is extant the In- 
ventory of her wardrobe, which contained a wealth 
of rich and costly dresses, viz. : *' a robe of white silk 
serge pleated with silver ; a robe of cerulean-blue 
cloth lined with grey fur ; a tunic of red brocade 
trimmed with braid and buttons of silver ; a cape or 
cloth of gold and watered silk ; and train of fine thin 
scarlet cloth covered with silver trimmings ; two silk 
hoods lined with ermine, several lace caps covered 
with pearls — etc., etc." Possibly some of her be- 
longings got into the hands of Venditori di Panni 
Vecchi, — dealers in old clothes, who in 1283 had 

115 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

been subjected to strict inspection. Women were 
allowed to buy and sell, but all shops had to be 
closed on festivals and Sundays, which, in Venice, 
totalled up to half the year. Perhaps the good 
Dogaressa bestowed her wardrobe, or some of her 
garments, upon the members of that most curious 
Guild of all the Guilds of Venice — the '' Zonfi'' — the 
lame and blind ; for it was incorporated under her 
patronage. 

Of those days indeed the words of the quattro- 
cento poet of Padua, Giovanni Sanguinacci, were 
true : — 

"Venice rich and free wears the world's crown high — 
Queen of the Sea, of the Shore, of the Sky." 



IV 



Upon the abdication of Giovanni Dandolo the 
popular choice of a successor fell upon Giacomo, 
Doge Lorenzo Tiepolo's eldest son, — a prudent and 
unselfish man — " un huomo de bene " as he was 
called ; but he refused the honour, and promptly 
went off to his estate at Mestre, and set to work 
farming. Eventually Pietro or Perazzo — "Proud 
Peter" — Gradenigo was elected. His character 
was marked by gentleness of disposition, equability 
of temper, tenacity of purpose, and strength of will, 
— all very desirable traits in one chosen to fill such 
a cumbered-about and difficult position as the 
Dogeship of Venice. 

Moreover he had strong views concerning the 
status of the Dogaressa. He had himself sought no 
foreign Princess, as had the men of the house of 

ii6 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Tiepolo, but had taken his wife from a Venetian 
family, as illustrious as his own — both were of the 
"Apostolic," or twelve premier, families — Tom- 
masina Morosini. She presented him with five 
sons and a daughter, — Paolo, Marco, Niccolo, 
Giacomo, Giovanni, with Anna, who lived to be the 
consort of Giacomo da Carrara, Lord of Padua. 

Convinced, by diligent study and close observa- 
tion, that an autocracy was the only satisfactory 
form of government for Venice, as opposed to the 
intricate jealousies of the aristocracy, and to the 
varying pretensions of the democracy, the new 
Doge caused the Great Council to pass a law which 
fixed the administration of the State in the hands 
of the Doge and the Council of Ten. With a 
stroke of the pen the popular Government, estab- 
lished under Doge Sebastiano Ziani, in 1172, was 
abolished, and the Venetian Republic came peril- 
ously near being controlled by the will of one 
strong man. More or less to allay the apprehen- 
sions of his fellow-nobles Gradenigo instituted the 
'' Libro cTOro de Quarantiar Almost the first 
action of "the Forty," — quite characteristic, but at 
the same time grimly humorous, — was to hedge 
the ambitious Doge about with greater restrictions 
than ever. He was never to leave Venice under 
any pretext, and never to walk about the City 
unattended. His official income was fixed at 
14,000 ducats (say ;^20oo) for the worthy support of 
his family and for the entertainment at dinner, four 
times a year, of the Lords of the Council. The 
State robes to be worn by Doge and Dogaressa 
were also exactly indicated : — for the Doge, over a 
close-fitting long tunic or cassock of silver cloth, a 

117 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

full mantle of cloth of gold lined with ermine, and 
an ermine hood. The Corno was of crimson silk- 
velvet with a plain band of gold, and he was shod 
with crimson shoes. The Dogaressa's Court robe 
was similar to that of her husband ; she wore her 
bodice cut low, her veil was white gauze, — other 
ladies wore black, — and she exhibited what jewels 
she liked. 

In 131 2 the Dogaressa was required, by a petti- 
fogging edict, which the Council passed ironically, 
to be careful about her payments. She was not 
to incur debts, but to pay ready cash, and to be 
particular to pass no longer the smaller copper 
coins, but to make use of new silver ducats. Her 
alms too in the Basilica and other churches were to 
be in gold — perhaps the Dogaressa Tommasina had 
been chary of her offerings ! 

Doge Pietro Gradenigo was a politician pure 
and simple, he cared neither for military or naval 
questions, nor did he give heed to the interests of 
the industrial classes. A fluent speaker, he dis- 
sembled where he could not convince ; and he 
gained the people's ears by his much talking, while 
he restrained their tongues with lavish hospitalities. 
Like the Medici of Firenze, in later times, his motto 
was : — '* Do nothing without the people," and his 
practice was to amuse them. Call this Macchia- 
vellian if you like — that mischievously misused 
designation for two-faced and hypothetic policies 
and politicians. 

Venice became a vast pleasure fair, — all kinds 
of vulgar excesses were tolerated, and incentives to 
abstention from politics were scattered broadcast, in 
the form of constant panderings to popular fancy. 

118 




THE PROMENADE AT A COURT BALL. 

FROM A PRINT. 1610. 
" Habiti d'Huomini e Donne." — G. Franco. 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Shooting-butts were set up in the piazzas, and 
boxing and general pugilistic encounters were estab- 
lished upon the bridges. These latter sports took 
fast hold upon the people's taste, and resulted in 
pitched battles between champions of the various 
sestieri. The Ponte di San Barnaba was the 
favourite "coign of battle," or as it came to be 
called ''Ponte de PugnV — '' Bridge of Fisticuffs ! " 
At Carnival and on Public Holidays the whole city 
forgathered to applaud those who held the Bridge, 
and to deride those who toppled over into the 
water. Combatants usually ranged themselves 
under two flags — the red of the '' Caste Hani'' and 
the black of the '' Nicolotti^ Their rivalries were 
fierce and entered into their daily lives, where lie 
met lie and boast foiled boast. '' Reds " mocked 
" Blacks " and vice versa : — 

" Swine that ye be, all ye Nicolotti 
How can ye expect the girls to love ye ? " 

" Have ye no care for Donne — Domini ? 
Thieves that ye be, all ye Castellani ! " 

Regattas were ever popular and Doge Gradenigo 
and Dogaressa Tommasina emulated the far-off 
example of Doge Domenigo and Dogaressa Teodora 
Selvo by presiding at the contests and personally 
distributing the prizes. The first prize was a 
crimson silk purse full of gold ducats ; the second, 
green full of silver coins ; the third, blue filled with 
coppers ; the fourth, yellow and empty, but with the 
addition of a model of a little black pig! Whilst 
Padua had its Passion Plays and Fruili its Religious 
Masks, Venice, under the Gradenigo Doges, had no 
such pious orgies : Venetians loved the drama and 

119 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

the ballad — the mysteries and the passions of actual 
life. Dancing in the piazzas, and serenades upon 
the Grand Canal — such were their manners. 

We gather very little of the Dogaressa Tom- 
masina from the history of her husband's dogado : 
Some say she died in 1300, and that the Doge 
married, in the following year, Donna Agnese, the 
daughter of Pietro Zantani — *'a woman of the 
people " — who survived him, and dying, left her 
personal property to her only son Pietro. Another 
woman's name is associated with that of the Doge, 
one Sabba Minotti, but who and what she was we 
do not know. Domestic morality under Pietro 
Gradenigo did not attain a very distinctively high 
mark ! 

At the close of the thirteenth century, and 
throughout the whole of the fourteenth, Venice was 
agitated by revolutionary projects. The year 1300 
was marked by the conspiracy of Marco Bocconio, 
a man of great wealth with a great following of 
suborned adherents. He aimed at the deposition 
of Doge Pietro Gradenigo and the substitution of 
himself as Supreme Lord of Venice. Bocconio and 
ten of his principal supporters were hanged between 
the two marble columns of evil augury upon the 
Piazzetta. 

The conspiracy of Marco Quirino and Baiamonte 
Tiepolo was a more serious affair, and the ancient 
families of the Badoeri, Barozzi and Dori and many 
others, were implicated. Pietro Gradenigo was 
again the obstacle in the way of the conspirators, 
he appeared to have attained to such a measure of 
personal pre-eminence that nothing less than his 
head could save the situation. Never before in all 

120 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

her history had Venice witnessed such a spectacle 
of personal ambition and personal animosity. 
Marco Quirino, — the father-in-law of Baiamonte 
Tiepolo, aimed at the absolute Lordship, with its 
devolution upon his second in command. They 
were possessed of immense resources, and had 
large retinues of highly-trained servants and well- 
drilled slaves. Baiamonte appealed to the populace 
in his character of '' II gran Cavaliere'' by which 
title he was known and respected. The Doge, with 
a firmness of the hard man that he was, — ^he was 
in truth ** Un Atila " — *' a merciless man," — crushed 
the rebellion. Marco Quirino was beheaded and 
his mansion, on the Grand Canal, turned into a 
shambles, and Baiamonte Tiepolo exiled with the 
confiscation of all his property. 

There is a story in connection with the Quirino- 
Tiepolo rising which is quite worth while the tell- 
ing. Baiamonte Tiepolo, at the head of his armed 
mercenaries, was passing noisily along the Merceria, 
on his way to the Ducal Palace, when suddenly the 
lattice of a window was thrown back and a woman 
looked out, — an action unwarrantable and criminal. 
Without a moment s hesitation she seized the heavy 
stone pan, full of growing red carnations, and 
dropped it upon the head of the standard-bearer! 
The confusion which followed the fall of their 
leader's banner gave the Doge's men the chance of 
a decisive charge, and the rebels were driven back. 
Giustina Rossi, such was her name, was taken 
before his Serenity, publicly thanked, and offered 
a handsome reward. However she declined every 
proposal but at length she said she would accept 
two favours: — "that she might hang out of her 

121 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

window a banner of San Marco upon the anni- 
versary of St Vito's day ; and that her rent should 
never be raised beyond fifteen gold ducats a year." 
Both requests were at once granted, and the '' Casa 
Giustina " as it was called, just beyond the Arco del 
Cappello, was ever after a landmark in Venice. A 
white stone on the pavement still marks the spot, 
and a bust of the heroine Giustina was placed near 
the arch in 1841. 

Little more can be recorded of " Proud Peter." 
That he raised the position of Doge to the highest 
point cannot be doubted, and his treaties with 
European States, — England included, — caused his 
fame to resound far and wide. His death was 
somewhat inglorious, he had gained no man's good- 
will and no one mourned for him. The usual burial 
rites of Doges were not accorded him, but privately 
his remains were removed to the island of Murano, 
and secretly buried in the vaults of San Cipriano : — 
it was in the winter of 13 10. 

One of the sweetest stories of old Venice is that 
of '' La Beattina" or " Beata." In the Campo San 
Vio (Vito), close to the Palazzo Loredan, there was, in 
the thirteenth century, a notable casa, where resided 
Count Pier Nicolo Tagliapietra, a soldier of fortune 
in the service of the Republic, and ennobled by the 
Emperor. One bright sunny day in June, in the 
year 1289, — when Pietro Gradenigo was Doge, — 
the Countess Elena presented her husband with a 
lovely baby girl — as delicate as a daisy, as lovely 
as a lily. No name was found for the child more 
suitable than '' Maria Beata " ; and, as she grew, 
the beauty of her little person was matched by 
the sweetness of her disposition. *' A little saint 

122 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

come to earth," was she called. Like all the 
mothers of Venice Countess Elena was as devout 
in her religious duties as she was devoted to her 
husband and her child. Daily she was one of the 
foremost at Mass and Vespers, and, as soon as 
little Beata could toddle across the riva she accom- 
panied her good mother in her visits to the church 
of her choice, San Maurizio, across the Grand 
Canal. 

There were no gondolas in those days so little 
Beata made friends with the barca men at the 
landing-place, any one of whom would ferry the 
little Countess to the other side as often as she 
willed. After a time the Count became uneasy at 
his daughter's marked predilection for Church and 
Convent, — he had in his mind a favourable marriage 
scheme ; — for girls were betrothed often as not 
whilst barely in their teens. Beata would not listen 
to his proposals, and moreover disobeyed his pro- 
hibition of her devotional exercises. The only way 
to check his daughter's visits to San Maurizio was 
to bribe the boatmen not to ferry her across. A 
day came when, in spite of the girl's startled en- 
treaties, not a man of them would do her service, 
— almost with tears they refused her request. So 
Beata knelt upon the rough pavement of the riva, 
and, holding up her hands to Heaven, she begged 
Saint Mary and Saint Maurice both to help her 
in her trouble. Then, approaching the canal side, 
she untied her pinafore, and, in sight of her 
admirers, she spread it out upon the water, and 
stepped gently upon it. It bore her weight and, 
wonder of wonders, began to move her from her 
supporting boat - pile, and, wafted by a gentle 

123 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

breeze, La Beata was soon at the other side of 
the canal ! 

Dumbfounded the boatmen and the riva loungers 
stood gazing at the wondrous scene, and then, with 
one accord all shouted " Uno miracolo I Uno Mtra- 
colo!'' The news was carried over the Campo, 
right down each riva and calk, until all Venice 
knew that they possessed another Saint, — a holy- 
virgin, a new companion for their beloved Santa 
Giustina. 

Whatever might have been Count Tagliapietra's 
plan for Beata's betrothal mattered little, for e very- 
eligible youth in Venice promptly made an offer for 
her hand ; but no suitor received encouragement, 
for "La Beata" professed herself a *' Bride of 
Christ," — the bride of none beside, — the convent 
cell should be her marriage bed, the altar her 
cassone, — so resolved she prayed most earnestly for 
death ; life had no charms for her. 

A merciful Providence, perhaps, granted the 
child-saint's request, for, from no apparent cause, 
save only her earnest wish, she surrendered her 
young beauteous life on the eve of All Saints' in 
1308 — it was in her one-and-twentieth year. All 
Venice followed " La Beata " to her burial at San 
Vito with tears of joy and words of sorrow. Never 
since the strict sumptuary laws were passed did 
so many wax candles illuminate church and casa. 
Everybody burned one to the young saint's honour, 
and then her sepulchre became a shrine, — a place 
for special prayer, a rendezvous for pilgrims. 
Annually the Doge and Dogaressa with their official 
household made a State visit to San Vito and left 
their offerings at ** La Beata's " altar. Strangest 

124 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

of all strange devotions, — a custom sprang up in 
Venice, "the City of Saints," on All Saints' Day. 
'* La Beata's" coffin was uncovered, and mothers 
came from far and near to lay their new-born babes 
upon the saintly bones — a certain preventive from 
drowning! The devotion to Santa Beata became 
so absorbing that at last, to avoid scandals, it was 
decided by the Ecclesiastical authorities to seal her 
tomb and forbid her votaries. Nevertheless from 
that time to this the church of St Vito is thronged 
at the yearly festival of All Saints with mothers 
and their young children who have learned from 
them the story and the virtues of " the sweetest of 
the Saints of Venice." 



125 



CHAPTER IV 



**A Galley full of demons" is by no means an 
inapt title for the fourteenth century in Venice ! 
The legend of ''II Pescatore e rAnello'' is as well- 
known as any of the stories in the boudoir of the 
''Queen of the Adriatic," moreover, in a strangely 
weird and prophetic way, it epitomises the storm 
and calm of the new century's course from start to 
finish. 

''An old boatman, caught in the raging flood of 
February the twenty-fifth, in the year 1340, — when 
all Venice was three feet under water, — and hardly 
making St Mark's quay, with his frail craft, was 
told by a haughty stranger to ferry him across the 
wild waves to San Giorgio Maggiore. There, 
another passenger joined the pair, and the timorous 
gondolier was directed to make for San Niccolo di 
Lido. ' Row boldly and thou shalt be well re- 
warded ' was the order. At the Lido another 
stranger came on board, and the oarsman was com- 
manded to push his boat out into the open sea. 
The ocean churned in fury, and, out of the fume, 
the afirighted boatman beheld a huge galley bearing 
down upon his barca ; it was full of mad demons ! 
But lo, at the sign of the Cross the awesome vessel 
vanished, and the tumultuous elements became still. 
Back to Venice rowed the old man, and demanded 
his due. ' Go to the Procurator, he shall pay thee 

126 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

for me,' replied the stranger. 'Who art thou?' 
asked the man, — ' I am Saint Mark, and my com- 
panions are Saint George and Saint Nicholas, — 
take this ring and give it to the Doge.' " 

Andrea Dandolo was the Procurator and 
Bartolommeo Gradenigo the Doge, Paris Bordone 
and Palma Vecchio painted the legend and their 
pictures hang in the Accademia. 

The new century saw the demise of the first 
political Doge of Venice — Pietro Gradenigo, and 
his successor was not sought among men of like 
sympathies, — the electors were afraid. Meeting 
after meeting was held, apparently in vain, no 
noble appeared willing to accept, or eligible for, the 
vacant dignity. At last, one day, standing at an 
open window of the Ducal Palace, which gave upon 
the Piazza, some weary nobles of the Council dis- 
cerned an old man hobbling upon his stick and 
bearing a basket filled with loaves of bread, he was 
Messir Marino Zorzi or Giorgio. 

" That's our Doge ! " they cried together, and so 
it came to pass that the vacant dogado went to a 
man unknown in political and warlike circles but 
very highly esteemed for his philanthropy. He 
was in fact, at that very moment on his way to the 
Hospital of San Domenigo for destitute children, 
which he had recently founded. His fame for 
charity was so widely spread, that he had gained 
the popular title of ''Zorzi il Santo ^ He and his 
Consort, Madonna Agnese, were greatly interested 
in the prosperity of the silk industry in Venice, and 
when the people of Lucca fled from the troops of 
the Condottiere Castruccio Castracane, thirty families 
of spinners and weavers of silken tissue were wel- 

127 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

corned by the Doge and Dogaressa, and, by their 
influence, housed in the Calle della Bissa, near the 
church of San Giovanni Crisostomo, in the very 
centre of the silk quarter of the city. By Dogaressa 
Agnese's intervention Lucca silk-masters were ap- 
pointed to train apprentices and generally to super- 
intend the production of silk fabrics in the workshops 
of the Venetian *' Fragilia.'' 

'' Zorzi il Santo " and his Consort reigned but 
one brief year, and then once again the electors had 
to find a new Head of the State. Almost unani- 
mously Messir Giovanni Soranzo was chosen, who, 
although turned seventy years of age, was one of 
the most active men of the day. Among his exploits 
were the command of a victorious fleet against 
Genoa, the capture of Jaffa and the Syrian littoral, 
the humiliation of Padua, the re-conquest of 
Dalmatia, and the reconciliation of Venice to the 
Papal See. Under his patronage, and that of 
Dogaressa Franchesina, the silk industry flourished 
exceedingly and Oriental brocades and tissues were 
driven out of the market. The glass-workers of 
Murano reached the zenith of their fame, and no 
more mirrors from Germany and hanging-lamps 
from Greece were imported. The Arsenal was 
greatly extended, and was made capable of main- 
taining fully equipped at least 40,000 men. For 
the poor man too Doge Soranzo's rule was fortunate, 
for a silver ducat could purchase enough food, and 
wine, and fuel, for himself and his family for a 
week. 

The Doge was a wealthy man, and indeed he 
had need to be, for in his time ambassadors from 
every civilised State took up their residence in 

128 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Venice. Foreign princes also came to make their 
bows to the Head of the Serene Republic. There 
was much entertaining and much expense. Dogar- 
essa Franchesina was in all but name, ** Queen of 
Venice " ; her toilet, her boudoir, her receptions 
were modish, tasteful, and splendid. The Soranzi 
were one of the eight considerable families, who, in 
the tenth century, were classed with the ** Apostolic " 
twelve and *' Evangelistic " four, in the first grade 
of Venetian nobility. Their palace was one of the 
grandest in Venice and it was full of costly treasures ; 
it was even said that the table-service of the Doge 
and Dogaressa was of gold and silver-gilt, whilst 
the most lustrous glass of Murano glittered in every 
room. 

Although Doge Soranzos public life was so 
successful and so popular, — in private, his heart, 
and that of the Dogaressa were broken by anxiety 
and sorrow, — thus evenly are mundane affairs 
balanced. The story of Donna Soranza, their 
dearly-loved daughter, is as sad as sad can be. 
Married to Niccolo, eldest son of Marco Quirino, 
the leader of the Quirini-Tiepolo conspiracy, he 
was exiled with his wife, the very day his father s 
head fell to the executioner's axe. They made 
their home at Zara, but Messir Niccolo survived 
his expatriation but four years, when he too fell, 
stabbed by an unknown hand. The widowed 
Madonna sought to return to Venice and to her 
father s home, but her appeals were all in vain ; 
Doge Soranzo, like another Brutus, treated his 
daughter's pleas with quite uncalled-for severity. 
At last she determined to throw herself upon the 
mercy of the Council of Forty, and taking her way 
I 129 



The Dogaressas ot Venice 

hopefully, she presented herself dutifully to her 
father and mother. 

That was a mournful home-coming, and mother 
and daughter, clasped in each others arms, 
resisted the austere ruling of the Doge, who had 
informed the Council of his daughter's return. In 
spite of all good Dogaressa Franchesina could 
say or do her unhappy child was torn from her 
embrace and condemned to perpetual exclusion in 
the Convent of Santa Maria delle Vergine. Gende- 
women of Madonna Sirarjia Ouirinis position 
were styled " Canonesses, ' and each had her own 
httle casa and a domestic ser\'ant, who was allowed 
to go out washing, and was permitted to make 
purchases for her mistress, and even to convey 
messages to her friends. The poor ladies were not 
suffered even to visit each other, and they could 
onlv take exercise in the Convent warden at rare 
and stated inter\-als. 

Every year the Doge paid a ceremonial \4sit to 
the C invent, where he was received with great 
ninr^- by the Abbess and the superior Canonesses. 
who were all arrayed in magnihcent v-hite sih-c- 
brocade robes, and each wore two veils, — one black 
and one white, — sioTiif\*in2r that thouo^h in the 
world they were not of it. The Abbess handed the 
Doge a bouquet of sweet flowers in a golden 
jewelled holder, and he bestowed in rer^rn caskets 
of sweetmeats upon the devout recluses. Xe\-er 
once did father and daughter meet ; she yearned to 
embrace him and her mother, but he never even 
made enquiries about her : she was dead to the world. 
to the family, and to him, — a Spartan father's 
discipline ! Letters and messages were all in vain ; 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

unhappy Madonna Soranza's only consolation was 
the companionship of another Quirino widow, — 
Andreola, — who remained a very short time in the 
Convent, for a suitor appeared, in the person of 
Angelo Bembo, and he was permitted to remove 
his innamorata to the Convent of Santa Maria di 
Valverde, upon the island of Mazzorbo, where they 
were married. 

Alas ! poor Madonna Soranza had no such 
fortune, but she pined and pined in her solitude, 
and, after twenty-five years of suffering, she laid^her 
down and died — twenty years after the death of her 
stern father. Certainly an edict, passed in 13 13, 
sentenced the wives of rebels and outlaws, with 
their children, to perpetual exile : and they were 
warned that unsanctioned return to Venice would 
be visited with perpetual confinement. Un- 
doubtedly this proved the rule, as sententious writers 
have noted : — The sternness of justice is superior to 
the tenderness of affection. 

Nevertheless to the practical historian Giovanni 
Soranzo ranks as the sixth ''Grand" Doge of 
Venice. His was a majestic burial — in State he 
lay at SS. Giovanni e Paolo, watched by the 
sorrowing Dogaressa and her ladies of honour. 
His very simple tomb in the Soranzo Chapel at 
San Marco is eloquent of splendid public work 
simply done. The State purchased his gorgeous 
table-service of gold, and much of the furniture 
of his palace for use at Court functions. Of 
Dogaressa Franchesina we hear no more : perhaps 
she joined her unhappy daughter, and when she 
died, perhaps she was interred in her husband's 
toiiib. Very striking, in the story of the Dogaressas 

131 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

of Venice, are the silence and the secrecy which 
shrouded each Ducal lady's latter days : as a rule 
they survived their Consorts — some entered 
convents and some retained their homes, — but 
their glory departed like that of the tropical sun 
which leaves no twilight. 

Francesco Dandolo succeeded to the Dogeship : 
he was the great - grandson of Messir Andrea 
Dandolo, who died in 1 153, brother of the *' Grand " 
Doge Arrigo. His election was very popular, for 
his ancestry and his own achievements were both 
famous. He was the third Dandolo Doge, an 
honour never attained by any family in Venice 
since the ancient times of the Particepazio, the 
Candiani, the Orseoli and the Michieli. Borne to 
his investiture upon the shoulders of stalwart 
craftsmen, he called a halt at San Marco, and 
there he knelt in silent prayer where his great-great 
uncle, the *' Grand " Doge Arrigo Dandolo, had 
knelt one hundred years or more before. Then, 
standing in the choir, he was invested with the 
regalia of his high office. Grasping the great 
banner of San Marco, handed to him by the 
Patriarch he marched at the head of the huge 
procession to the Ducal Palace. Mounting the 
grand staircase he bared his head, and, holding up 
his hands on high, subscribed the oath and received 
the Corno, It was the first Ducal bonnet to be 
provided by the State : hitherto the Abbess of San 
Zaccaria had held that prerogative. With the new 
Corno was also a smaller horned head-dress for the 
Dogaressa. 

It seemed as though Madonna Elisabetta would 
enter upon a less trammelled position, and obtain 

132 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

a larger measure of official recognition than had 
been the lot of her predecessors. Later develop- 
ments confirmed this Idea as we shall see. 
Immediately after the Installation of the Doge the 
customary lordly deputation went off to the 
Dandolo Mansion. It was noteworthy that at the 
head of the noble Lords was, for the first time, the 
imposing figure of the High Chancellor, a dignitary 
second only to the Doge, and It was he who 
addressed her Serenity: — **We have come," he 
said, '' to congratulate the Dogaressa of Venice 
upon the election of her noble Consort as our Doge, 
and to request the honour of your Serenity's 
adhesion to certain provisions of the new 
Promissione!' 

Dogaressa Ellsabetta notified her pleasure at 
the compliment, which was paid her, and her 
acceptance of the conventions of her new dignity. 
Moreover she presented to each of the noble Lords 
a magnificently embroidered silk purse containing 
ten golden ducats. In recognition of their courtesy 
and as a pledge of her favour. This was a notable 
victory for the Dogaressa who, whilst under the old 
Promissiont, was debarred from giving and receiving 
presents of any kind. What had brought about 
this change In the policy of the Council no one has 
recorded. Was it due to the awakening consciences 
of the nobles who, perhaps, now saw the meanness 
and unworthlness of the restrictions imposed upon 
the Head of the State and his Consort by former 
enactments ? Or was It due to the worthy records 
created by the latest holders of the Dogaressaship 
in their manifestations of the advance of gracious 
womanhood ? Who shall say ? 

133 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

A further step in the honour rendered to the 
new Dogaressa was, that, instead of the somewhat 
impromptu and tumultuous escort of the members 
of the '' Fragilie'' to conduct her Serenity at once 
to the Ducal Palace, a delay of seven days was 
ordered before her public recognition. Then the 
great state barge '' Bucintoro'' was manned and 
decorated as for the annual " Marriage of the 
Adriatic," and steered right up to the steps of the 
Dogaressa's residence, whence she was conducted 
on board with great circumstance and pomp. Clad 
in full robes of State but bare-headed, — her hair 
like that of a young bride, rippling around her 
shoulders, — Dogaressa Elisabetta was attended by 
a graceful suite oi gentildonne, all dressed in festal 
white with floral wreaths and bouquets. Escorted, 
not by companies of craftsmen on foot, but by a 
fleet of bregantine, — each vessel splendidly decor- 
ated, and bearing the banner of its "- Fragilia'' with 
the Masters and officials of the Craft in full regalia, 
— the water-pageant started upon its course to the 
Piazzetta. Passing under the glorious arch of the 
Ponte di Rialto, crowded with sympathetic and 
admiring citizens, with difficulty it steered its course 
amid hundreds of barcas and gondolas filled with 
cheering holiday-makers all in the very best of good- 
humour. 

Arrived at the Piazzetta her Serenity and her 
following were conducted, not as usual to the Ducal 
Palace, but into the Basilica, where she knelt in 
prayer, whilst the Patriarch blessed her as he had 
the Doge : then she laid an offering upon the high 
altar — a purse of crimson silk-brocade containing 
ten gold ducats. From San Marco she was attended 

134 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

by a company of nobles, one holding over her head 
the Ducal umbrella, to the Sala de Signori di Notte, 
within the Ducal Palace, passing through the Sala 
del Consiglio Maggiore — the greatest and most 
splendid hall in Venice, where the painter Guariento 
was already busy with his famous frescoes, — and there 
she finds the Doge seated and crowned upon his 
throne. Descending the steps of the dais, her 
Consort takes her by the hand, and places her in the 
Dogaressa's Chair of State under the Ducal canopy. 
The Chancellor tenders the solemn oath and the 
Dogaressa swears to maintain certain clauses of the 
'' Promts stone ;'' then, in the name of the assembled 
noble Lords, he places upon her bared head the 
miniature Coma, which the State had newly pro- 
vided ; and, lastly, the nobles offer their congratula- 
tions and their homage. 

Stately ceremony, ever wearying by its formalities, 
gives way to social hospitality, and, as by custom 
bound, Dogaressa Elisabetta issues invitations to 
all the Masters of Crafts and their officials to sup 
with her in her private apartments. Meanwhile the 
busy hands of her serving-maids have arranged the 
flowing locks of the Dogaressa's hair, and have 
added a new feature to her State head-dress, — a 
delicate coif or veil of the finest embroidered 
cambric. It was a very necessary adjunct, for, 
when the jewelled Coma was removed, the dignity 
of a covered head remained, — besides it was a most 
becoming mode. Thus with unwonted pomp, and 
amid universal approbation Doge Francesco 
Dandolo and Dogaressa Elisabetta were hailed 
almost as King and Queen of Venice. Right 
royally they maintained their high station, for daily 

135 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

they made progresses to different parts of the city 
or to the more distant islands, in support of local 
charities or local interests ; and everywhere they 
were acclaimed by sympathetic crowds of citizens 
and craftsmen. 

The austere rule and the haughty personality of 
Doge Giovanni Soranzo were things of the past, 
and the sad lot of unhappy widowed Madonna 
Soranza Ouirino was forg^otten. Men and women 
were only too thankful for the auspicious conditions 
under wdiich they found themselves, — care gave 
place to joy, — unrest to revelry. One outcome of 
the better state of things, — ^and it was a very unex- 
pected and withal amazing, — was an innovation with 
respect to the '' Feste delle Marie'' — the annual 
marriao;e of the "Brides of Venice" at San Pietro 
di Castello. The ancient marriao-e rites, — which we 
have already noted, — had been gradually modified, 
until there were scarcely any rites at all. In the 
year of Dogaressa Elisabetta Dandolo's Coronation, 
upon the natal Feast of San Marco, a quaint 
marriage pageant was provided, and, instead of 
twelve or more beauteous damsels in nuptial attire 
glittering through \"enice calle and canale to the 
marriao-e altar, twelve lav fiorures were substituted. 
Dressed in bridal crarb these dolls, — borne through 
crowds of uproarious citizens, — were greeted up and 
down and everywhere with derision as '' Ma7'ie di 
tola e di legato ! " — " Brides of stuff and wood ! " 

Alas for the permanence of things human ! The 
lareer libertv ^ranted by the Promissione to Doofe 
and Docraressa Francesco Dandolo in matters social 
and sartorial, was curtailed considerably after five 
years of general exuberance, and in 1334 fresh 

136 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

sumptuary laws were enacted. Gentlewomen were 
not to wear trains at Court, or at home, or on Piazza. 
Jewelled girdles, above the value of twenty gold 
ducats, were forbidden. Gold and silver rouge jars 
and scarce lie, or handbags, with jewels and gold 
filigree work, were no longer to be used. No 
gentlewoman was to possess more than two capes 
of ermine and only one big cloak lined with taffetas. 
Pearls, on the shoes, were disallowed, and the wear- 
ing of peacocks' feathers. The value of a bridal 
trousseau was not to exceed five hundred ducats, 
whilst the bridal dress itself was not to cost more 
than two hundred ducats — a very liberal allowance 
as things went ! The bride however was not per- 
mitted any robes of cloth of gold nor ermine linings. 
Boys, under twelve could not wear gold or silver 
ornaments, pearls, velvet, or fur : over twelve and up 
to twenty-five, youths and young men were forbidden 
to wear belts and scarcelle exceeding twenty-five 
ducats in value. All were to wear a strip of blue 
cloth hanging from the shoulder to the feet, which 
they rolled up, and then threw over the left arm : 
'' Calar Stola " it was called. 

The dogado of Francesco Dandolo lasted ten 
years, — a period of prosperity for Venice, — and 
much of it was due to the wise and tactful conduct 
of the Doge. If he may not be reckoned a *' Grand 
Doge," — although Ruskin calls him so in the 
''Stones of Venice,'' — it is perhaps because, as a 
Dandolo, he was overshadowed by the stronger 
personality of his relative and successor Doge 
Andrea Dandolo, whose times were far more 
stirring and presented greater opportunities for 
distinction. On the other hand Elisabetta was a 

137 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

"Grand Dogaressa" — one of the few who rose 
to high station and maintained it with distinction. 

Both Doge and Dogaressa were patrons of the 
new-born Fine Arts, for, in addition to the fresco 
painter Guariento, Giacomo del Fiore, Lorenzo 
Venezlano, and others were painting altar-pieces 
and anconas in the earliest Venetian studios — a 
hundred years or more before the brothers Vivarini 
founded the School of Murano. In the Sacristy of 
the church of Santa Maria della Salute is a picture 
by an anonymous Venetian painter, representing 
the presentation, by their patron Saints, of Doge 
Francesco Dandolo and Dogaressa Elisabetta upon 
their knees, to the Madonna and Bambino. The 
picture is dated 1338, and is one of the very earliest 
paintings of the great School of Venice. Originally 
this notable painting was placed over the tomb of 
Doge Francesco Dandolo and Dogaressa Elisabetta 
in the Chapter- House of the church of the Frari. 
The sarcophagus also has been removed, and now 
it is in the cloisters of the Se^ninario Patriarchate. 
The year of the Doge's death we know, 1339, but 
there is no record of that of Dogaressa Elisabetta. 



II 



Andrea ©andolo (1342- 1384) was the fourth and 
last Doge of his family. It is not a little remark- 
able, that in the History of Venice, the families 
which gave several Doges, up to the end of the 
fourteenth century, did so within severally restricted 
periods : — for example, the seven Partecipazi Doges 
held office between the years 827-942, the five 

138 




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The Dogaressas of Venice 

Candiani 886-977, the three Orseoli 976-1009, the 
three Michieli 1096-1172, the four Dandoli 1192- 
1354 and the three Gradenighi 1283- 1356. It would 
seem as though the ''Apostolic" families came to 
honour and power, and swayed the destinies of the 
Republic, and then, in some mysterious manner, 
declined, fell away, and the Ducal Throne knew 
them no more. 

Doge Andrea was the son of Messir Fantino 
Dandolo who was descended from Marco Dandolo 
Procurator of San Marco in 1161, and first cousin 
of the *' Grand " Doge Arrigo. The first Venetian 
noble to study at Padua and obtain the Doctors 
degree there, Andrea Dandolo was, from his boy- 
hood, studious and reserved. He served the State 
in many public offices, a member of the Council of 
Ten, in 1 340 he was called to the important position 
of Procurator of San Marco. 

Upon his election as Doge in 1342 an edict was 
issued barring his three sons, Fantino, Lionardo 
and Pietro, when grown, from holding public office 
during their father's dogado. As to who was their 
mother no chronicler has apparently recorded, and 
this is astonishing, seeing that Andrea Dandolo's 
"• Cronaca " is one of the fullest and most reliable 
of all Venetian annals, and deals exhaustively with 
his own family affairs. Consequently we must 
make the most of the romance of Madonna Isabella 
de' Fieschi, the Consort of Luchino Visconti, Lord 
of Milan. 

This fascinating Princess visited Venice attracted 
by the fame of the young Doge, — he was only 
thirty-five years old when elected to the Ducal 
Throne, — for his sobriquet all through Lombardy 

139 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

and the Marches was ''Count of Courtesy." He 
was tall, well-built, and handsome, a poetaster, a 
man of letters, perhaps a genius, the most accom- 
plished nobleman in Venice. Fair Isabella had, 
as all women have, her own ideas of love and 
witchery, and she was not too conscientious in her 
duty to her husband : he was a man of boorish 
manners, and there was no love lost between them. 
Gifted too in many ways, she conceived a violent 
passion for Doge Dandolo which he returned in a 
dreamy sort of way. Anyhow, she soon became 
leader of the Venetian Court, as well as mistress 
of the Doge. Alas ! bewitching Isabella's intimacy 
and influence were cut short by a terrible outbreak 
of the Black Death, which claimed very many noble 
victims and Isabella de' Fieschi among them. 

Between 1344 and 1346 it was estimated that 
sixty noble families were absolutely exterminated, 
whilst the Council of Forty was reduced to less 
than twenty. The only preventive, and it was 
only partially successful that the Guild of the 
Physicians could prescribe, was a concoction of 
aromatic herbs, amber, and ivy berries — " Teriaca'' 
it was called. The Government guaranteed this 
panacea, which everyone was ordered to take — it 
was procurable at the Speziale della Testa dOro by 
the Rial to bridge. It was an ancient Greek remedy 
revived, and one may purchase it to-day at the 
still existent "Golden Head." 

Venice was depopulated and families from out- 
lying islands near the mainland were welcomed by 
the Government, and granted privileges on settle- 
ment. This sensible move was due to the Doge's 
advocacy : he had in view the advantages of intro- 

140 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

ducing new blood into the veins of the population 
enervated by prosperity and weakened by epidemic. 
Earthquakes and famine followed relentlessly upon 
the heels of the pestilence, and great distress and 
reckless outrage were added to the evil lot of the 
Venetians. 

The Doge alone kept calm and resourceful — 
master of the situation, whilst men were losing 
their heads and women their minds ; but the 
anxieties, sufferings, and fatigues of the years of 
visitation preyed greatly upon his highly-strung and 
sympathetic temperament, and he died almost 
suddenly and, quite alone when no more than fifty 
years of age. 

Andrea Dandolo is renowned as the eighth 
'' Grand " Duke of Venice, by reason of his remark- 
able personal qualities, and of his noble devotion to 
the Republic. He was buried in the Baptistery of 
San Marco, the last Doge to be there interred, and 
Francesco Petrarch wrote his epitaph : — ** He 
earned such glory and honour as no other Venetian 
Doge did before him ! " One very pleasant episode 
in his career was his intimacy with Petrarch. After 
the decisive Chioggian war with Genoa, when the 
*' Queen of the Adriatic " subdued the "Queen of 
the Mediterranean," — Francesco Petrarch was sent, 
as one of an embassy from Milan, to seek mitiga- 
tion of the Venetian terms of peace. The mission 
was unsuccessful, but the " Grand " Doge and the 
"Great" Poet became fast friends and constant 
correspondents. 

Ruskin, in his ''Stones of Venice'' writes thus 
of the Baptistery and of Andrea Dandolo's tomb : — 
" We are in a low vaulted room ... in the centre 

141 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

a bronze font . . . and a small figure of the Baptist 
... a single ray of light falls from a window . . . 
the only thing it strikes brightly is a tomb, and it 
rests upon the sleeper's face for ever, a man of 
middle life, but there are two deep furrows right 
across the forehead, the features are small and 
delicate, the lips sharp . . . and there is a sweet 
smile upon them. It is Doge Andrea Dandolo, a 
man early great among the great of Venice, and 
early lost ... he died, leaving behind him that 
History to which we owe half of what we know of 
the former fortunes of Venice." 

The mosaics in the Baptistery show the Doge 
kneeling in devout prayer, but, alas, no Dogaressa 
keeps him company. 

The Conspiracy of Marino Falier or Faliero, 
like its predecessors, under the leadership respec- 
tively of Marco Bocconio and of Marco Quirino 
and Baiamonte Tiepolo, in aim and animus, was 
very unlike in means and methods. They tried to 
grasp the supreme magistracy from the aristocratic 
standpoint. Falier, although an ''aristocrat of 
aristocrats," sought the suffrages of the democracy 
to make him Over- Lord of Venice. Head of one 
of the noblest and most ancient families, Marco or 
Marino Falier was born in the Casa Falier, upon 
the Rio de SS. Apostoli in the year 1280. The 
Falieri were one of the twelve " Apostolic " families 
at Eraclea in 697. The lad's parents were Messir 
Vitale Falier and Madonna Beriola Loredan, — 
daughter of Messir Giovanni Loredan of San 
Canciano, — and he was destined for a commercial 
career but early he turned to politics. 

Marino Falier held many Important State 
142 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

appointments, and, by his ability and disinterested- 
ness, gained the confidence of his fellow-nobles and 
the citizens at large. His patriotism was un- 
questioned, for no one displayed greater enthusiasm 
in hunting down the adherents of the Quirino- 
Tiepolo conspiracy. When still under thirty he 
was admitted to the Council of Ten, and became 
ambassador, in turn, to the Duke of Austria, the 
Genoese Republic, and to the Emperor Charles V. 
Falier also held with distinction both naval and 
military commands. Upon his appointment as 
Podesta of Treviso he took the title of Count of 
Val di Morena. Francesco Petrarch, in his 
'' Epistolce,'' speaks of Marino Falier's wisdom and 
public spirit : ** Ducatus honor nan petal zcno quidem 
ignaro sibi obligety 

Falier was married twice. When a mere youth 
he wooed and won Donna Tommasina Contarini, 
his equal in rank, but as delicate as she was 
beautiful. Within a year she was torn from his 
embrace and carried away in the black chariot 
drawn by black oxen in the '' Triumph of Death." 
One sweet pledge of love fair Tommasina left her 
sorrowing young husband, but the relentless 
"Mower" reaped the baby girl, soon after her 
sweet mother's death. Prostrated by this double 
bereavement Falier plunged into the vortex of 
politics, hoping thereby to heal his wounds. Time 
gave him consolation and revenge for when he was 
fifty -five he found himself once more a prisoner of 
the "Triumph of Love." 

Aluycia Gradenigo was a very fascinating 
woman, — a full-blown rose ready to be gathered by 
a gallant suitor. She was a daughter of Messir 

143 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Nicolo Gardenigo of San Maurizio and grand- 
niece of Doge Pietro, — '' Proud Peter." In her 
veins ran the blood of Greek ancestors, who, driven 
out of Byzantium by the Emperor Emmanuel 
settled at Altino, in the seventh century. Falier 
was Podesta of Treviso at the time of his second 
marriage and Treviso was always the '' Court of 
Beauty and of Love," — the centre of the '' Marca 
A7norosar Naturally, gay young fellows gathered 
there, many of them drawn from Venice, among 
them Pietro Bollani, Michele Molino, Rizzardo 
Marioni, IMoretto Zorzi, Maffio Morosini, and the 
two brothers Giovanni and Michele Steno — 
GiovinastrV — ''Insolent Young Dogs," were they 
nicknamed. 

Madonna Aluycia Falier did not want for ad- 
mirers, and, if iMartino Sanudo, and other 
chroniclers, may be believed, she greatly en- 
couraged their advances. She was a good deal 
younger than her husband, and cared litde for 
his engrossing affairs of State, whilst, naturally, 
she sought consolation and companionship among 
those of her own age. Between Michele Steno 
and the Countess sprang up a warm attachment, 
and gossips have not been at pains to shield the 
young wife's honour. Anyhow the Podesta got 
wind of the liaison and warned the hardy lover off. 
Steno was not the man to take his conge readily, 
and very soon he learned that directly lovely 
Aluycia was "off with the old love, she was on 
with the new!" He made up his mind to be 
revenged of the stern Podesta and his bewitching 
wife, so he left Treviso in dudgeon and went back 
to Venice to watch for his opportunity. 

144 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

During the festivities which marked the election 
of Marino Falier to the Doge's seat in 1354, was a 
Court Ball at the Ducal Palace, and Michele Steno 
was among the guests. He was greeted by the 
Doge and Dogaressa quite cordially, but all the 
same he chose to carry out his plan of humiliating 
them there. Pressing his attention upon one of 
Dogaressa Aluycia's maids-of-honour he let fall a 
remark which concerned his previous relations with 
her Serenity. Greatly shocked, the Court lady 
repeated what she had heard to others at the Ball 
and presently it reached the Doge's ear. The 
Doge beckoned him, and turning aside, insisted 
upon his leaving the assembly at once. Steno 
resisted, and was beginning to repeat his slander 
for all to hear when the Doge ordered his removal. 
Passing through the Throne-room of the Palace he 
scratched upon the marble Chair of Estate the 
following couplet : — 

" Marin Falier — da la bela moier 
Altri la galde — e lu la mantier." 

The Doge was furious. Steno was arrested and 
accused before the Council of his misdemeanour. 
His offence was as gross as gross could be and he 
fully deserved much more than he got ; — a sound 
thrashing with a fox-tail, — a mark of ignominy, — a 
year of imprisonment, and a fine of one hundred 
gold ducats. This mild sentence troubled Doge 
Falier greatly : he looked for the death sentence at 
least, seeing that the offence was against the sacred 
person of the Doge, as well as against his Consort. 
He was quite conversant with the fact that the 
majority of the nobles were actuated by anything 
K 145 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

but kindly feelings towards himself. No doubt they 
viewed his prominence, not alone as Doge but as 
the most able and ambitious man among them, with 
disquietude. 

Marino Falier was quite in touch with the 
opinions of the wealthier citizens and members of 
the prosperous '' F^'agilie!' Of course the Crafts 
were under Dogaressa Aluycia's special patronage, 
but he shared her interest in the prosperity of the 
industrial classes. If the nobles looked askance at 
his pretensions, could he not turn to the great 
democracy, and pose as the champion of their 
liberties ! This was the policy which grew more 
and more upon him. Michele Steno's affair passed 
over but it opened the Doge's eyes to the peril of 
his position, and, to safeguard that was his first 
concern. He could not trust the nobles, could he 
trust the people 1 

Notwithstanding that the chivalrous discipline 
of the Crusades had enduring influence upon the 
sentiments and manners of every class in Venice, 
and especially upon the nobles, there remained, of 
course, beneath the outward marks of courtesy and 
good-breeding very much of the old Adam of inso- 
lence and profanity. Year by year young men and 
old frequented, in ever-increasing numbers, Church, 
Piazza and Palace with nothinor in the world to do 
but to kill time and incidentally their own and others* 
reputations. 

Many of these idlers were out-of-elbow noble- 
men — " BarnabottV they were dubbed in derision, as 
hangers-on to anybody with money or influence. 
Proud, dissolute, discontented, and ever ready for 
insult or injury, this ill-conditioned mob was a 

146 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

menace to the peace and well-being of the Republic. 
Sometimes after more than usually prolonged de- 
votions in the Temple of Bacchus, these good-for- 
nothings sallied forth to commit acts of vandalism 
in the city : at other times, their visitations to the 
Court of Venus fomented jealousies, which found 
vent only in deeds of personal violence against 
those they feared or hated. 

One such outburst occurred only a few days 
after Michele Steno's insult in the Palace. The 
Admiral of the Arsenal was Bertruccio Isarello, a 
man ambitious, unscrupulous, and intolerant to his 
subordinates. A very quarrelsome Condottiere del 
Mare, one Francesco Barbaro, considered himself 
wronged in some way by the Admiral, and, obtain- 
ing no satisfaction, he had the audacity to strike his 
chief in the Council Chamber ! Admiral Isarello 
reported the circumstance to the Doge, and sought, 
through him, redress. 

" How can I help you, remember," replied 
Falier, "how grossly Michele Steno insulted me, 
and see how leniently the Forty treated him ! " 
Then seeing that the Doge's rancour was unabated 
and, knowing something of his Serenity's senti- 
ments with respect to the democracy, the Admiral 
exclaimed : — 

'* My Lord, why should we suffer these 
* Barnabotti ' and these * Bravi ' any longer. You, 
my Lord Doge, have a ready remedy, and I am 
prepared to aid you in punishing them and in 
humiliating some of our great lords, if you will 
confide in me and in my men of the Arsenal, 
who are your friends and mine." This was 
the first step in the conspiracy of Marino Falier, 

147 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

and he did not linger long before he stepped 
again. 

Everything was ordered secretly, and the con- 
spirators were ready for the summons of the Great 
Bell of San Marco on the morning of 15th April, — 
the usual official notice that a meeting of the 
Council demanded the immediate presence of the 
Forty. The Admiral's instructions were to strike 
down every nobleman who obeyed the summons, 
and, in the confusion, to proclaim Falier Sovereign 
of Venice. There was however a traitor in the 
camp, one Beltramo a Bergamesque furrier, a 
client of Stefanello Trevisan the Doge's stockbroker 
at Santa Margherita. This man gathered some- 
thing of the existence of the plot, and forthwith 
made his way to one of his barber associates, a 
valet in the household of Messir Nicolo Lioni of 
San Stefano, a member of the Council, who informed 
his master. Without much ado the chief conspirators 
were arrested — some thirty to forty in number. 
When charged with being privy to the plot Doge 
Marino Falier tossed up his proud head, and laying 
his hand upon his sword-hilt exclaimed : — '' II Doxe 
nol seppe ingane ! " — " The Doge never lies ! " 

The Doge had short shrift : he was allowed to 
make his will and his confession, but not to see his 
miserable wife Dogaressa Aluycia or any member of 
his family or household. Early upon the morrow 
of the detection of his conspiracy, the great bell of 
the Basilica, which had all but clanged forth the 
death-knell of the Lords of the Council gave forth 
the funeral peal as for the burial of a Doge. Arrayed 
in his State robes and wearing his Ducal Corno 
Marino Falier was led into the great Courtyard of 

148 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

the Ducal Palace, and stepped forth to death bravely 
and contemptuously. His proud appeal for a hear- 
ing was refused, and then, stripped of his panoply 
of office, the old man knelt unresistingly upon the 
hard stones and bared his neck before the execu- 
tioner. One swift blow sufficed and the gory grey- 
bearded head rolled to the feet of the chief of the 
Council, who picking it up in his arms, hurried into 
the loggia which gave upon the Piazza, and there, 
exposing his ghastly trophy to the excited multitude, 
cried out : — ' ' Look ! — all of you ! — look ! — Ripe justice 
hath been done to the arch-traitor ! " Then he cast 
the foul thing from him into the middle of the 
Courtyard, where the populace thrust and fought 
to gaze at, revile, and dishonour the corpse of the 
old Doge whom they had so lately venerated and 
trusted. At dark the remains were gathered 
together and taken secretly in a covered barge, 
with eight big burning torches, and buried in the 
Faliero vault in the chapel of Madonna della Pace, 
within the great church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo. 

We must now turn aside from this terrible 
tragedy, and contemplate a tragedy far more 
pathetic, the sad tragedy of Dogaressa Aluycia. 
The execution of the Doge involved the confiscation 
of his property, his palace, near the bridge of SS. 
Apostoli, with its marble columns, and a casa by the 
church of San Severo which had been built for 
Falier by the architect Calendario, and their 
valuable contents. Marino Falier and his Consort 
had been keen collectors of beautiful objects and 
antiques : in an Inventory of their treasures, — made 
by a priest, Giovanni, of the church of SS. Apostoli, 
in 135 1, mention is made of the Camera rubea, — a 

149 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

museum, — and of another apartment, filled with 
objects of art, — collected by the famous explorer 
Marco Polo durinor his travels. 

The unhappy Dogaressa was dispossessed of all 
her Consort had left her and ordered to vacate her 
home and go where she would. In one swift 
moment plunged from the lofty height of the Ducal 
Throne into the abyss of ignominy, she was reduced 
to absolute poverty and became the mark of every 
evil tongue, an object of aversion and suspicion. 
Prostrated by her bitter woe she besought Heaven 
to let her die, — madness was the only alternative, — 
she sought comfort and release but both were 
denied her. Her mind became a blank, her reason 
tottered, and when at length two lifelong friends 
dared, at the risk of their own lives, to penetrate 
her hiding-place, Messiri Giorgio Giustiniani and 
Niccolo Contarini, they found her a raving lunatic. 

By permission of the Council Dogaressa Aluycia 
was placed in the Convent of San Lorenzo on the 
fondamento of San Severo, where she received a 
small ofold brooch and some other triflinof mementos 
of her husband. After a while she was moved to 
Verona where she had property and friends, but 
the change wrought no relief and sorrowfully she 
was sent back to Venice, where she ended her days 
in 1385, in a mad asylum, forgotten by the world, 
with no child or friend to mourn her, alone with 
God. 

The conspiracy and execution of Doge Marino 
Falier shook the constitution of Venice to its 
deepest foundations. Suspicion and revenge lurked 
at every corner of church, palace, and piazza. 
Every man's hand was upon his poignard, each 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

woman's knee was bent in intercession, and the 
children ceased their games. 

Venice was once more " Venezia Calva " — but 
** Venice naked " in shame, dismay, and tragedy. 



Ill 



Doges came and Doges went, and, with them, 
their Dogaressas : the last half of the fourteenth 
century saw seven Heads of the State. Their 
Consorts are named in the MS. Dolfin Gradenigo^ 
in the Museo Civico, but about only three of 
them have the chroniclers given us much informa- 
tion. Calling to mind a quaint entry in the 
'' Archivio Veneto'' of the year 1288, which de- 
precates matrimony and woman's influence as far 
as regards the Rulers of States, we may perhaps 
gather the subtle meaning of the excursus of Frate 
Paolino, a Minorite of Venice. 

''Whilst a man" he writes, ''ought to seek a 
wife tall and well-formed, that she may give him 
fine and comely children, he should, all the same, 
never be ruled by her advice, for a woman has 
not sound counsel, because she usually has not a 
strong constitution, and her mind is apt to yield 
to the infirmities of the body." Be this as it may, 
we must look wider afield for circumstances which 
greatly altered the conditions of the dogado. 

The middle of the fourteenth century was 
remarkable as a period of unusual political unrest 
and of unprecedented immorality. The great 
middle-class of Venetian citizens had not only 
gradually acquired wealth and influence, but they 

151 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

were determined that the Government of the 
Republic should no longer rest exclusively in the 
hands of the nobles. The City was agitated with 
measures against the aristocracy, which were 
greatly strengthened by the consequences attend- 
ing the execution of Doge Marino Falier. The 
dreaded revolution was however averted and the 
new Doge, Giovanni Gradenigo, though a grand- 
son of the aristocratic "Proud Peter," was known 
to be a man of particularly suave and considerate 
character — '' II Nasone " he was called because of 
his bottle-nose. His Consort was Madonna Marina 
Cappello, — a lineal descendant of Andrea Cappello, 
the hero of the '' Rape of the Brides of Venice " in 
Doge Pietro Candiano IV.'s time. 

Amid all the political commotions, women came 
very much more into public life. Hitherto re- 
strained by almost Oriental enactments they now 
began to throw off the conventions which so 
narrowly -prescribed their position. The Senate 
and the domestic hearth were alike imperilled : 
women lost their modesty, and men their con- 
tinence. Dress and manners yielded to the 
infatuation : women's breasts were bared, and 
men s hose became indecent. Delicate living and 
pleasure unrestrained changed the proverbial 
decorum of Venice. New ideas Platonic and 
otherwise were rife concerning the relations of 
the sexes. Venice was full of light women, not 
natives only, but frail beauties from beyond the 
lagunes, drawn thither by the fine figures and fat 
purses of the men. In the year 1360 the number 
of courtesans exceeded twelve thousand ! 

The scandal was so glaring that the Govern- 
152 




COURTESANS. 
Vettore Carpaccio. 

ACCADEMIi^ , VENICE. 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

ment of Doge Giovanni Delfino (i 356-1 361), issued 
an edict forbidding such women from occupying 
common lodging-houses, joining supper parties of 
men, and going about the city — except on 
Saturdays : at the same time they were required 
to reside within the sestiere of Castelletto, near the 
Ponte di Rialto. Very strict laws were passed by 
the Council of Forty for the preservation of 
morals ; hanging was the punishment meted out 
to offenders. The story of Madonna Veneranda 
Porta, who lived in the second half of the century, — 
still recounted among the gondoliers, — is indicative 
of the state of society. She had an unsympathetic 
husband, and as a consequence, a lover, and he 
slew Messir Giorgio Porta. The lovers were 
arrested and condemned to suffer the extreme 
penalty of the law. Madonna Veneranda protested 
'* that Venice had never yet hung a woman, — it 
would be too indecent, — and she would not be 
the first to be so punished." ''You shall hang," 
replied the chief of the Council, " in a sack ! " 

Doge Giovanni Delfino, in 1357, founded an 
Hostel for Fallen Women — '' redire ad penitentiam 
et contriciam " ; and, he and his Consort, — whose 
name we do not even know, — established as many 
as seventeen receiving houses for children exposed 
in the byways and water-ways. His dogado was 
calamitous for Venice abroad as well as at home. 
"He was," the historians tell us, "nevertheless, a 
true soldier, honourable and patriotic." He died 
in 1 36 1, his body was laid in State, — the first 
Doge so honoured, — in the Sala de Signori di 
Notte, and was buried at SS. ^Giovanni e Paolo, — 
where his sarcophagus, enriched with sculptures 

153 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

has bas-reliefs of the Dos^e and Dosfaressa kneel- 
ing at the feet of the enthroned Christ. 

There were several candidates for the vacant 
Throne and much delay was experienced in the 
selection of the new Doge, but. whilst the electors 
hesitated, news came of a famous naval achieve- 
ment of the Venetian fleet, under Lorenzo Celsi, 
*'the Captain of the Gulf." He was a brave man 
and the idol of the people, with no claims whatever 
to nobility of rank, possessed of only moderate 
means, and under hftv vears of acre. His name 
was shouted in the Piazza, and a vast concourse of 
craftsmen and gondoliers rushed pell-mell to the 
Ducal Palace, and demanded his election as 
Doge. The people's caprice was for the nonce the 
nobles' choice, and they bowed to the popular 
outcry. 

The Dogaressa, Marchesina, daughter of Messir 
Girolamo Ghisi, a member of one of the rising 
families of merchant-craftsmen, with her maids of 
honour and an immense following- set off to meet 
the sailor DoQ:e on his return to Venice. Without 
precedent for any such demonstration, the '' Biuin- 
toro'' was rowed out to sea. and si^Tialled to the 
Lido the first sail of the approaching squadron. 
Once more a popular hero was borne shoulder-high 
into the Basilica, and in the Ducal Palace crowned 
*' Doge of Venice and of her Dominions beyond the 
Sea," so ran his title. 

Lorenzo Celsi was prepared to be all things to 
all men and made endless promises of democratic 
reforms, such as the manner is of men not to the 
manner born. A man of splendid physique and 
brimful of ambitious ideas he determined not only 

154 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

to make the most of his good fortune, but to render 
his dogado as magnificent as possible. 

For his own protection he took very wise pre- 
cautions : sailors were not quite the kind of guard 
he and his family required, so, very adroitly, as he 
thought, he enrolled scores and scores of lawless 
men of the city, — the '' BravV — as a bodyguard 
to deal with disagreeable persons. These men soon 
had the measure of the Doge, and assumed a 
demeanour which imperilled the personal safety of 
all against whom they had any grudge whether 
public or private. Meetings to mark persons for 
assassination were held secretly at the out-of-the- 
way laundry of a woman named Tommasina Gobba, 
who was, by the way, laundress to the Dogaressa. 
The worthy body turned Doge's evidence, and the 
villains were disbanded, but the Doge came in for 
fierce aspersions and serious suspicions. It was 
easy to say that he instigated measures of violence, 
so as to safeguard himself and his position. 

Very fortunately for Celsi's vindication of his 
bona fides came the visit of Francesco Petrarch to 
Venice : "a place of peace and rest " he imagined it, 
but he found it ''full of depravity and profanity." 
A very amusing story is told of the poet's treatment 
of an importunate visitor. The man would take no 
refusal, he sought alms and patronage. Failing to 
convince Petrarch he set to work to insult him with 
odious language, — "" such as only Venetians used," — 
whereupon the poet seized him by the throat and 
kicked him down the stairs ! 

Petrarch was treated royally by the Venetians, 
the Palazzo de Quattro Torri, on the Grand Canal, 
was assigned to him as his residence, and at Court 

155 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

functions he was seated on the right hand of the 
Doge. The first of the pageants he beheld, was 
held in celebration of the Conquest of Candia, — 
where "the most comely youths in Christendom 
displayed their forms and prowess before the most 
beauteous maidens upon earth " : the splendid 
spectacles inspired his " Trionfi.'' 

" Questa leggiadra e gloriosa Donna 
Ch' e oggi nudo spirto e poca terra, 
E fugia di valor alta colonna, 

Tornava con onor della sua guerra 
Allegra, avendo vinto il gran nemico, 
Che con suo' inganni tutto '1 mondo attera." 

" La Bella Donna, e le compagne elette 
Tornando dalla nobile Vittoria 
In un bel drappelletto ivan ristrette." — 

No such brilliant tournament had ever been 
held in Venice : the Doge himself, superbly mounted, 
broke a lance with the Prince of Cyprus. The Poet, 
in an ecstasy of delight describes the Venetians as a 
"nation of sailors, horsemen, and beauties!" He 
says "the Dogaressa placed crowns of pure gold 
upon the victors' heads, and clasped silver belts 
around their hips." 

Petrarch lived seven years in Venice (i 361 -1368). 
In 1364 he wrote to Giovanni Boccaccio: — "Come 
then to my call," and the gay writer of the 
'' Decanter one'' spent three months in Venice. 
Before his departure Petrarch wrote to the Council 
of the Forty : — " I wish with the good will of my 
Saviour and of the Evangelist, to make St Mark 
the heir of my Library." The bequest was grate- 
fully accepted, but, alas, like many more such 
benefactions, nothing now remains but a few 
mouldy worm-eaten volumes. 

156 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Doge Lorenzo Celsi's day of popularity went too 
the way of the world. Like all risen men he 
became autocratic and presumed upon the liberties 
and antecedents of the nobles, and they took their 
revenge. Upon the thirtieth of July 1365, the 
Council of Ten passed a resolution reflecting upon 
the Doge's assumption of authority, and putting 
upon record that the status of the nobles was in 
jeopardy. The wording of the concluding sentence 
is quaint yet convincing: — ''quia non est de 
neccessitate'' — "because we have no further need 
of him ! " 

The Doge was deposed, being suspected of 
favouring a reform in the Government, which, 
whilst retaining the Ducal office, proposed to 
transfer the powers of the Councils of Nobles to a 
parliament representative of the citizens and crafts- 
men. 

The circumstances attending the election of 
Doge Marco Corner, or Cornaro (1365- 1367) are 
amusingly pathetic. He was a very old man, well 
over eighty years of age, and only remarkable for 
his uprightness, his studiousness, and his poverty. 
To be sure he came of an ''Evangelistic" noble 
family, — equal in antiquity and distinction to the 
Giustiniani, the Bembi, and the Bragadini, — but 
this accident of birth was neither a ground for 
boasting nor an incentive to ambition. The electors 
doubtless turned to him as being a simple-minded 
man, and one who would not follow his predecessor 
in affectation of lordly superiority. When the 
choice was made public very many people, in 
every class cavilled at the selection : — " Surely 
there were more distinguished candidates for the 

157 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Supreme Office, at all events some who were less 
homely in their surroundings," they said ; and they 
poked fun at old Corners lack of means and at his 
old wife's dowdy ways. 

Dogaressa Caterina was an unaffected simple- 
hearted, domesticated woman, with no claim to 
nobility or social distinction of any kind, but a 
ver)' worthy helpmeet to her spouse. Idle tongues 
wagged about her and her ways and made fun of 
her little economies. The Doge bridled up at the 
disparaging remarks, and, with dignity, rebuked the 
scoffers. "\Mv old wife," he said, "is so ofood and 
SO virtuous, that she has always been respected by 
all the women of Venice quite as highly as if she 
had come of one of the most distinguished families!" 
Some busybody had seen the Madonna Caterina, 
quite lately, busy turning an old stuff dress that 
she might wear it a little longer, and the gossip 
went round the Palaces. Marco Corner met the 
sneer in a characteristic manner. " Well, what of 
that?" he asked, "there are many noble lords and 
worthy citizens in Venice, who would be only too 
thankful for such a useful wife as mine. She is a 
ofood woman, and I will thank vou to let her 
alone." 

Certainly Dogaressa Caterina Comer was not 
born in the purple nor had she any taste for cere- 
monial : we do not read of any imposing procession 
of Guilds settino^ forth to conduct her to the Ducal 
Palace for her coronation. The probabilit)' is that, 
with shrewd commonsense and no great display of 
dress or jewels, she quietly took her place beside 
her husband, bent on doing her duty in her new 
position, as she had done all through her life. 

158 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Whatever responsibilities devolved upon her as 
Dogaressa, such as were connected with charity, 
education, and the encouragement of industries were 
borne right nobly. 

To good Marco Corner was due the issue of 
licenses by the Government for poor people, past 
work at their usual avocations, to earn pittances as 
itinerant street merchants. Besides this he was 
instrumental, with good Dogaressa Caterina, in the 
establishment of hospitals for the aged poor so that 
''none might end their days in misery nor die of 
hunger." Doge Marco Corner gained the respect 
of all and died regretted by those who had mocked 
him. His tomb in SS. Giovanni e Paolo is one 
of the most beautiful examples of fourteenth- 
century Gothic. Probably Dogaressa Caterina was 
laid in the same grave, but there is no record of 
her death. Hers was the harvest of a quiet eye, 
the satisfaction of the simple life, and the reward 
of a good conscience. 

Marco Corner's successor was quite a different 
sort of man, but still one likely to be amenable to 
the Lords of the Council, and not one to make 
pretensions beyond the limits of the Promissione, 
When the news of Doge Corner's death reached 
him, Andrea Contarini was peacefully tying up his 
vines in his estate at Gambarre on the Brenta. 
Very many Venetian nobles had villas in that 
delectable district, and the Contarini country- 
mansion was one of the most handsome. Directly 
lie was told that he had been elected Doge he 
declined the honour, — indeed he twice refused, — 
having in mind the ominous prediction of a Syrian 
dervish, who had warned him : — "If thou ever 

159 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

become Doge of Venice untold disasters will fall 
upon her ! " 

The Electors would take no refusal and warned 
Contarini that he laid himself open to the confisca- 
tion of all his property, and to a sentence of banish- 
ment for life, both for himself and for his family. 
He cared very little for public life : he took as 
his motto the Venetian proverb: — '' Zocoli, brocoli, 
capelo, e poco cervelo'' — ''Slippers, gardening, and 
a night-cap, with nothing to worry about!" He 
came however of a ruling family, one of the 
''Apostolic" twelve, just one hundred years after 
his ancestor, Doge Giacomo Contarini had upborne 
his name and his City nobly. 

Doge Andrea Contarini's dogado was marked by 
restrictions at home and troubles abroad. His 
Promissione was, perhaps, the most tyrannical of 
any required of a Doge. He and his family were 
expressly forbidden gifts of every kind. Neither 
he nor the Dogaressa (whose name has not been 
recorded), nor any of their children, were allowed 
to possess land and property of any kind in the 
neighbourhood of Treviso, Padua and Ferrara : and 
this was a personal hit, for it was just in those 
districts that the Contarini family had interests. 
The Dogaressa was further denied liberty of action 
in various small ways, and every good work she 
proposed required the explicit sanction of the 
Council before she could carry it out. Abroad 
the interests of the Republic were seriously jeopar- 
dised ; her bitter rival Genoa was preparing to 
attack her, and peace-loving Doge Contarini had 
to lay aside his implements of husbandry and take 
in hand his sword. 

1 60 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

"Arms and the Man" — was true of Venetian 
tactics, for two famous captains of her ships and 
her men came to the front to direct her warlike 
progress — Carlo Zeno and Vettor Pisani. Success 
and failure in turn followed Saint Mark's banner, 
but the soothsayer's words came true, for disaster 
settled down upon Venice, what time Andrea Con- 
tarini was Doge. Still his sun went down with 
shouts of victory from Chioggia, where he and his 
captains and his men crushed the enemy effectually. 
He was buried in the Augustinian church of San 
Stefano and his tomb bears the brief epitaph : — 
''MCCCLXVII Dux creatus: MCCCLXXXII 
in Ccelum sublatus," 

Under the Dogaressa the gentildonne of Venice, 
headed by Donne Anna Falier, Francesca Bragadini, 
Margherita Michieli, and Marliana Bembo, — *'Good 
angels of love and pity," they were called, — organ- 
ised special ministrations for the benefit of the 
wounded in the war, the widows of the fallen, and 
the fatherless children. They were inspired by the 
same patriotic spirit, which had been voiced by the 
valiant Doge himself, '' All for Venice — I will not 
see her Palaces again until she is victorious ! " 

What a curiously different saying was that of 
Doge Contarini's successor, Michele Morosini : — 
"What matters," said he, "the fall of Venice, so 
long as I am strong! " He was a mean fellow and 
a miser, a disgrace to the noble name he bore, but, 
happily for Venice, he held the dogado no more 
than three months. He was one of the twenty 
thousand Venetians who perished in the plague, and 
no one regretted him. His Consort was Donna 
Cristina Condulmiero. The Condulmieri were 

L l6l 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

merchants of woollen-cloth, refugees from Pavia : 
they lived in the Campo Santa Lucia. 

The last Doge of the century was Antonio 
Venier. The Venieri ranked with the Cappelli, 
Loredani, Malipieri, and the remainder of the 
twenty families in the second class of Nobles : their 
names having been enrolled by the ** Serrar del 
Consiglio'' in the " Libro d'Oro " of 1289. One 
special proviso was attached to the continuance of 
their order: — every child had to be registered 
within three months of birth, or he or she forfeited 
rank and inheritance. Nevertheless, the Venieri 
went back to the eleventh century when their fore- 
bears settled at Chioggia. Doge Antonio Venier 
was urbane if austere, moral if gracious, and, in 
character and personality, as unlike his selfish 
unpatriotic predecessor as could well be imagined. 
He was, by his liberal-mindedness, an illustration 
of the Venetian proverb : — " Tedeschi in la stala, 
Francesci in cusina, Spagnoli in la camera, Venetiane 
in casa.f' His title of '' Magnifico'' he well 
deserved, for no more magnanimous Doge ever 
wore the Ducal bonnet. 

The last eighteen years of the century were as 
peaceful and as uneventful as any like period in 
Venetian history : a wide contrast to the pushful 
times of Doge Pietro Gradenigo. We might write 
of his dogado as of: — 

" Roses ! roses ! all the way 
With wild myrtle mixed like mad." 

There was however a thorn, and a very sharp 
one too, in Antonio Venier's career ; it was one 
which sprang out of his own branch of the family 

162 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

tree. Alvise, or Luigi, his eldest son, was if not a 
ne'er-do-weel, a very wild sort of lad. Probably 
the serenity of the life at the Ducal Palace palled 
upon the youth, who sought relief in romantic 
attachments. Among his escapades was one, in 
company with his friend, Marco Loredan, which 
compromised the fair fame of Madonna Felicita, the 
wife of Messir Giovanni dalle Boccole — a rosebud 
and a thorn ! 

Messir dalle Boccole discovered the intrigue and 
watched his opportunity for chastisement, but the 
gay Lotharios anticipated his purpose and in a 
moment of peculiar sportiveness, — it was at mid- 
night, nth June 1388, — they stuck up, over Messir 
dalle Boccole's front door a Phallic symbol, and 
scribbled upon the lintel some opprobrious words. 
Such an insult was intolerable, and, as the culprits 
did nothing to conceal their identity, nor make 
amends, dalle Boccole complained of their conduct 
to their respective fathers. How Marco's father 
acted we know not, but Doge Venier visited his 
son's offence with the severity of a Brutus. The 
lad was put on his trial before the Signori delle 
Notti, — the Police Court of Venice, — a fine was 
imposed of one hundred lire, and two months' 
imprisonment in the Pozzi, — where only political 
prisoners were confined. '* Horrible, dark, damp 
cells, that would make the saddest life in the free 
light and air seem bright and desirable," so wrote 
George Eliot in i860. 

In this terrible place of confinement, with a 
steady depth of two feet of stagnant putrid water, 
the only dry rest his hard bench, which did duty for 
table and for bed, poor young Alvise lost heart and 

163 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

health. He pleaded desperately with his father to 
release him from his terrors and his infirmities, but 
the Doge gave no reply and made no sign. He 
was, he plumed himself the impersonation of all that 
was just, honourable, and unimpeachable in Venice, 
and, not for his own offspring, could he suffer any 
relaxation of the sentence. His son had trans- 
gressed the law, he must abide the consequences, so 
he ruled. And the consequences, in spite of his 
mother, the Dogaressa Agnese's impassioned inter- 
cessions, were that the young man, left to his fate, 
died miserably in the filthy Gehenna, in the spring- 
tide of 1388. 

This was the parental justice of the urbane and 
gracious Antonio Venier, but the " thorn " pierced 
his own hand and heart, and after two years of 
useless remorse and self-accusation, the unnatural if 
judicial Doge passed away in mental anguish in the 
Palazzo Venier ai Gesiusti near the Ponte dell' 
Acqua-vita. 

There is quite a touching little story which 
concerns the burial of poor young Alvise Venier. 
The sister who loved him best, Antonia, was so 
greatly distressed by her father's attitude that she 
professed herself a Canoness of San Zaccaria, and, 
when her brother's dead body was refused decent 
burial by the Doge, she obtained possession of it 
and carried it away from the foul Casa degli Spiriti, 
— where all the dead rest before their final course to 
San Michele, — the common cemetery, — and placed 
it reverently in an unoccupied piece of land of the 
fondamento of Cannaregio, the most distant sestiere 
from the Ducal Palace. Direcdy the Doge was 

164 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

dead she put into effect a resolution she had 
made, — after earnest prayer to St Mary, 
St Giustina, and the good Bishop Lodovico, 
her patron, — to build a church and a Canonica, 
and dedicate them in the name of her 
brother as Sant' Alvise. In the crypt she 
buried him and, by her will, directed that her 
own dead body should be laid beside his. Alas 
the Orto Botanico, where, — when not beset by 
picnic parties of bird - lovers at the neighbour- 
ing aviaries of St Giobbe, — devout Antonia 
Venier meditated and prayed, and whence 
she watched her church arise, has lost all traces 
of its original condition, it is now a torpedo 
factory ! 

Dogaressa Agnese, although her heart and 
brain were lacerated by pain and sorrow, survived 
her Consort a few years, then, in 141 1, she was 
buried near his tomb with their daughter, Orsola, 
in the left transept of the church of SS. Giovanni 
e Paolo. 

Doge Antonio Venier died in the first year of 
the new century : it was in January, when snow 
and ice coated calle and canale — a white shroud to 
cover the dead body of a century, pitted with 
blanes and boils of private wrong and public 
turpitude. 

Ring down the curtain and hide the traces of 
tragedy : maybe the next scene will be a trans- 
formation ! A plaintive echo of a voice — one of 
the sweetest that ever sang upon the Lido of 
Venice, steals into our ears, amid the muffled 
clang of all the Campanili bells, and bids us take 
heart of grace. It is fair Laura's innamorato 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

who in his ''Africa'' thus prophesies of 
Venice : — 

" Our Sons shall live in days more bright and fair. 

Then noble intellect and docile mind 
Shall renovate the studies of mankind 
The love of beauty and of truth the cult 
Shall make life's pilgrimage less difficult." 



166 



CHAPTER V 



**La Serenissima Dogaressa di Venezia" — "the 
Most Serene Duchess of Venice" — attained her 
highest dignity and splendour in the attractive 
personality of Signora Marina Galina da Santa 
Marina — the Consort of Doge Michele Steno. 
The reality of the " First Lady of Venice " had 
become more and more emphatic as each gracious 
wearer of the smaller Corno had made her solemn 
Entry into the City. 

The ancient family of Galina, in 960, founded 
the Church and Monastery of San Felice, on the 
Campo of San Felice, a little way back from the 
Grand Canal. They belonged to the third division 
of the first grade of nobles, immediately after the 
** Apostolic" twelve and the ** Evangelistic" four, 
and were among the ten families of considerable 
importance anterior to the Serrar del Consiglio of 
1289. The termination of the name **da Santa 
Marina " was indicative of the sestiere in which the 
family originally dwelt : their church of Santa 
Marina, built in 1030, was destroyed by fire in 1820. 

The date of Donna Marina's marriage with 
Messir Micheletto, or Michele, Steno is nowhere 
recorded. His family was one of those ennobled 
after the Chioggian War : they were neither 
wealthy nor influential. Messir Giovanni Steno, 
his father, was a poor man, as men went in Venice, 

167 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

and lived in a small casa in the sestiere of Santa 
Maria Zobenigo, upon the neutral zone which 
separated the dwellings of the Castellani from those 
of the Nicolotti. His mother was Madonna Lucia 
Lando, and her family was equal in antiquity and 
distinction to that of her spouse — an arrangement 
quite usual and conventional in Venice, where the 
different grades of the aristocracy rarely inter- 
married. 

Michele Steno's parents were blessed with 
another son — the elder of the two — Fantino, and 
three daughters, Franchescina, Donata, and 
Cristina, — who became a cloistered nun in the 
Convent of San Lorenzo. Messir Giovanni, with 
Messir Paolo Gradenigo, went on an embassy of 
peace to Genoa, and, on his return in 1351, he 
executed a will, leaving to his second son, Micheletto, 
one thousand gold ducats and the half of his house 
property and other belongings. 

Probably young Micheletto acquired some of the 
dare-devilry and impetuosity, for which he and other 
young smarts were notorious, from his early associa- 
tion with the rival factions of his sestiere. Incessant 
insults, quarrels and commotions characterised their 
mutual dealings, and their jests and oaths were 
indecent and sacrilegious : — '' Corpo di Bacco ! " and 
*' Sangue di Dian ! " were no less common in daily 
intercourse than ''Sangue di Dio!'' ''Corpo di 
Crist ! " Youth, aping strident manhood, not 
unusually delights itself in profanity and abuse. 
Marino Sanudo, who lived fifty years after Doge 
Michele Steno's death, states in his " History of 
Venice," that as a young man he was ''poor but 
ambitious, ardent and astute." 

168 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Sabellico has a note concerning the future Doge, 
and says, that, as co-ambassador to King Pietro 
d'Arragona in 1350, when he was no more than 
twenty-five years old, he displayed both tact and 
talent, and concluded a treaty very much to the 
advantage of the Republic. Michele Steno served 
the State with distinction and made himself an 
eligible candidate for the highest offices : in 1375 he 
was chosen one of the three Captains of the Council 
of Forty. 

It certainly comes, however, with something of 
a shock to find him, the precocious, daring, and 
romantic lover of women, — from Elizabetta, his 
uncle Paolo's attractive maid-servant to Aluycia 
Gradenigo, the fascinating Consort of Count Marino 
Falier, — mounting the Ducal Throne, which he had 
once stretched out his hand to profane ! Forty-five 
years have come and gone and the hot-headed youth 
has developed into the sage septuagenarian. How 
true it is that the sowing of wild oats in young days 
provides for the harvesting of ripe corn in old age ! 
Michele Steno and his Consort Marina could not 
have imagined that this consummation of their lives 
was in the lap of Fortune. If time and opportunity 
had modulated his character in tune with his 
environment, he was ''still remarkable" says 
Sanudo, *'for strength of will and irascibility of 
temper : a man of noble appearance and noted for 
the polish and gallantry of his manners." His 
election to the dogado was effected in November 
1400, but his installation as Doge was postponed to 
the following January. The usual ceremonies were 
duly celebrated and a new feature was added — a 
panegyric of the Doge and Dogaressa delivered 

169 



The Dogarcssas of Venice 

in San Marco by Bishop Lionardo Delfino of 
Castello. 

Indirectly his Promissione suggests that his 
aggressive temperament still caused men to look 
doubtfully at him. The legal titles of the Doge and 
Dogaressa were depressed, the idea of personal 
sovereignty was eliminated, and their Serenities 
were greeted as plain '' Messir le Doxe'' and plain 
'' Signora la Dogaressa.'' This new designation, 
however, was not altogether derogatory-, for the 
great Patron Saint of Venice was styled : — '' E stato 
galant' uomo Messir San Marco /" — " What a brave 
fellow is ' Mr ' Saint Mark ! " Venetians were 
great sticklers about titles : everybody liked to be 
addressed with ceremony and to have assigned a 
rank higher than that actually held — but perhaps 
this was no Venetian peculiarity, it is rather the 
natural, if persistent, egotism, of all times and 
peoples. 

In the " Trionfo delta Dogaressa di Voietia nel 
Secolo XV,'' — a document of the period, in the 
Museo Civico, — is a full account of the ceremonial 
observed and of the dresses worn at the solemn 
Entry of the Dogaressa Marina. The Government 
issued an order to the different Fragilie to prepare 
for the Festival. Each Guild had a portion of the 
Piazza and also of the Ducal Palace assigned for 
decoration with tapestries, carpets, and banners, and 
was also required to furnish a gala barge adorned 
with standards and decked with garlands, to form 
part of the water escort for the Bucintoro, which 
was prepared for the reception of the Dogaressa, 
her relatives and her suite. 

Upon the day of the Entry the Doge, accom- 

170 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

panicd by a number of Councillors, made a progress 
from the Ducal Palace to his private residence to 
assist the Dogaressa in embarking upon her water 
progress. She awaited her Consort in the principal 
reception room, where each of the noble Company 
saluted her and received from her hands a very 
beautifully embroidered purse of cloth of gold. 
Then, preceded by State trumpeters and standard- 
bearers, and Grooms of the State to the Doge, she 
passed down the stairway. Following her came 
sixty beauteous damsels in superb costumes, and 
the ladies of her family in costly robes with many 
jewels. 

The dress of the Dogaressa was magnificent : 
she wore a robe of cloth of gold fastened at the 
neck, with deep hanging sleeves, caught up by 
gold brooches upon the shoulders, a girdle of gold 
cord jewelled, and a mantle of stiff gold brocade 
embroidered with coloured silk like the Doge's. 
Her head-dress was a coif of lace under a cap of 
crimson silk velvet raised in such a way as to 
support a miniature jewelled Ducal Corno, and a 
thin gauze veil fell with her wealth of unrestrained 
hair from under the Corno, over her shoulders. 
A massive gold chain encircled her bust. Her 
shoes were of crimson velvet. Her train, also 
of cloth of gold brocade, was borne by young 
girls in white dresses, and crowned with fresh 
flowers. 

At the Dogaressa's side walked the wife of the 
High Chancellor, — the first citizeness of Venice, a 
wise concession to popular sentiment, — and the 
stately procession was brought up by the Pro- 
curators of San Marco, Councillors of Honour, 

171 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Senators and Gentlemen, two and two, every one 
being in full state costume. Upon the Bucintoro 
her Serenity was placed in the Doge's seat at the 
bows. The Doge and his following meanwhile 
returned to the Ducal Palace to await the arrival of 
his Consort. The progress of the Dogaressa along 
the Grand Canal was a "' Triumph." The whole 
city had embarked upon every available craft and 
everybody tossed enthusiastic greetings to the 
stately, comely Dogaressa Marina as she passed 
along her glittering way. The great vessel 
breasted untossed the lapping ripples of the 
newly perfumed waters of the Canal, and made 
her way through floating sprays of gaily coloured 
flowers, submerging, as she passed them, many a 
daring gondolier and his heedless gala freight. 

Arrived at the Piazzetta the august company 
landed, and, after being led past the Basilica, 
made a stately progress all round the Piazza, 
adorned as for a great Church festival and 
packed full of perspiring people. All the 
beauty and fashion of the moment looked out 
of window casements and from altane roofs. 
Flowers and confetti were showered upon her 
Serenity who marched with the utmost dignity 
under the great Ducal umbrella of State, sup- 
ported by the high officials of the Govern- 
ment. At the grand portal of San Marco the 
Dogaressa was received by the whole of the 
Chapter in gorgeous vestments, bearing lighted 
candles in great silver-gilt candelabra, and the 
principal gold crucifix, the while acolytes tossed 
their silver censers high. Sprinkled with 
holy water her Serenity stood reverently 

172 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

whilst the rector recited with her the following 
liturgy : — 

Let us Pray. 

O Lord, preserve Thine handmaiden, our Dogaressa. 

My trusty O God, is in Thee. 

Send her help from the Sanctuary, O Lord. 

And strengthen her out of Sion. 

Let no foe approach her. 

And let not the son of wickedness come near to hurt hen 

Grant peace in thy borders. 

And abundance in thy palaces. 

O Lord, hear my prayer : 

And let my cry come unto Thee. 

The Lord be with you : 

And with thy Spirit : 

Let us Pray. 

*'We beseech Thee, Almighty God, that this 
Thy servant, our Duchess, may be instructed and 
comforted by Thy wisdom and ever remain true 
to Thy Holy Church, Through Christ our Lord, 
Amen." 

" O God, whose providence never faileth in the 
ordering of human affairs we pray Thee to extend 
Thy ineffable loving-kindness to our prayer, that as 
Queen Esther, the chosen servant of Thy ancient 
people, caused the sceptre of King Ahasuerus, her 
consort, to rule wisely, so this Thy Servant, our 
Duchess, the chosen of Thy Christian people, may 
do everything according to Thy will, so that she 
may please Thee in everything and, inspired by 
Thee, may with her whole heart, exercise her 
high office to Thy glory and to the welfare 
of us Thy Servants, through Christ our Lord. 
Amen." 

Then *' Te Deum " was solemnly sung in the 
173 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

open air, the Dogaressa standing with her face to 
the people. The clergy next led the imposing 
procession up the central passage of the basilica and 
placed the Dogaressa ceremoniously upon the 
Doge's throne by the High Altar, where seated she 
bestowed her thanks and many gold ducats upon 
the ecclesiastical dignitaries. 

The State Chancellor now approached, and 
bowing low, addressed Dogaressa Marina as 
follows : — 

" Most Serene Duchess, I am about to ad- 
minister to you the Oath of Allegiance to the 
government of the Serene Republic of Venice. 
Will you promise to observe and maintain it 
intact ? " 

" I will do so most assuredly," she replied. 
The procession being re-formed the Dogaressa 
was conducted to the Ducal Palace, where, on 
ascending the grand staircase, she was met by a 
deputation of Masters of the Fragilie who invited 
her to take her seat at a table furnished with sweet- 
meats in golden baskets and red wine in silver cups ; 
and whereat officials of the Guild were in attend- 
ance. Acknowledging their salutations graciously 
she replied : ''gran merce non se sentimo.'' 

Proceeding on her way the Dogaressa, with her 
escort of noble lords, chamberlains, and gentle- 
women, passed through all the State rooms of the 
Palace, and entered the Sala dei Pioveghi where 
she took her seat upon the Doge's throne and gave 
attention to the following solemn address by the 
High Chancellor : — ** Your Serenity has deigned to 
come to this place which will be your home as long 
as you remain Dogaressa of Venice. Should you 

174 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

die, here your body will lie in State for three days 
before it is consigned to the tomb." 

To which very lugubrious oration the Dogaressa 
meekly replied : — ** I am quite content to abide by 
what you say so far as it may please the Majesty of 
God." Then, rising, she passed on once more, and 
entered the Sala del Gran Consiglio, where she was 
placed with much ceremony upon the great Throne 
of the Doge, — whence extending her hand every- 
body in the Presence advanced to kiss it. 

These solemnities being accomplished her 
Serenity was conducted to the Presence Chamber, 
there she was greeted by the Doge and his two 
Councillors of State, and then she retired to her 
private apartments. The public festivities in cele- 
bration of the Induction and Proclamation of the 
Dogaressa continued for three days. She presided 
at banquets offered to the noblewomen, the wives 
of foreign ambassadors, and the wives and daughters 
of the more prominent citizens. Sports of all kinds 
and tournaments were held in the Piazza in pre- 
sence of the Doge and Dogaressa, and upon the 
Grand Canal were fetes and serenades. Indeed for 
a whole twelvemonth Venice kept holiday and 
witnessed a succession of splendid pageants. 

The dogado of Michelo Steno and Marina 
Galina Steno was distinguished in many ways. 
First of all, and by way of leaving his mark upon 
Venice, in 1400, he caused the ceiling of the great 
Council Chamber of the Ducal Palace, — which its 
architect, Calendario, who was implicated in the 
conspiracy of Doge Marino Falier, had partly 
built, and where Guariento painted his ''Paradise" 
walls, — to be covered with golden stars — the reflex 

175 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

of his name "Steno" — *'Stellifer." In the arena 
of arms, Genoa, Verona, Padua, and Friuli were 
humbled and the King of Hungary was routed. 
Carlo Zeno, the great Condottiere, led the 
victorious Venetians against the two first cities ; 
but the Doge in person gained laurels at Padua and 
Friuli. Quaint ceremonies followed the defeat of 
the four cities, for forty nobles from each, — dressed 
respectively in red, white, purple, and green, came 
and made obeisance to Venice in the persons of the 
Doge and Dogaressa seated upon thrones set up in 
the Piazza. Each deputation laid at their Serenities* 
feet the keys and the banner of their city, and, at 
the same time, craved the consideration and pro- 
tection of the Republic. 

Great rejoicings accompanied these demon- 
strations of fealty wherein the Fragilie took an 
active and splendidly organised part. Always 
under the patronage of the Dogaressas, the various 
crafts had, through one hundred and fifty years of 
progressive industry, attained both perfection in the 
details of their several interests, and also a dominant 
position in the social economy of the State. At the 
same time Literature was reaching out towards 
distinction and the Fine Arts were starting upon 
their pageant of renown. Truly the first decade of 
the fifteenth century was pregnant with great issues 
and great events, it was the hour before the 
glorious noontide of expectation — " Venetia riccha, 
saggia, e signorila^' — " Venice, rich, wise and gentle- 
born." 

An obvious and visible token of the opulent 
greatness of the new century was the foundation of 
the famous ** Compagnia della Calza,'' directly under 

176 




L'INNAMORATO CON "LA NINFA." 
ARIOSTO'S CANZONE. " BIRENO E OLIMPIA. 

FROM A PRINT. 1560. 
" Habiti Delle Donne."— G. Franco. 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

the auspices of the stylish Doge and fashionable 
Dogaressa, old folks as they really were. This 
remarkable Society took its rise at the period of the 
pageants held during the first year of Doge Steno's 
rule. The designation " Calza " was quite an 
arbitrary choice for the purview of the Compagnia 
had regard to all and every detail of dress and 
manner. It was first entitled '' della Berretta,'' — 
** Company of the Cap," but the woven silken or 
worsted garment which clung to and exhibited 
the whole figure, was the emphatic feature of the 
sumptuary modes — hence came ''Calza'' — ''Com- 
pany of the Tights." 

The society or union consisted of a number of 
clubs of young men — gay, rich and physically fit. 
The officers of the Compagnia consisted of a Prior 
or chief, — who went about in a gorgeous costume 
of cloth of gold, — two Councillors, treasurer, chap- 
lain, painter, sculptor, architect, poet, annalist, and 
a notary. The Compagnia consisted of clubs, and 
each club bore a distinguishing name. Immortali, 
Reali, Perpetui, Semprevivi, Pavoni, Ortolani, etc., 
etc., — there were forty of them. Every member 
wore striped silk tights, embroidered in gold and 
coloured silks with pearls and gems : each club had 
its special arrangement of stripes. 

Their doublets of silk velvet embroidered with 
gold, fitted close to the body, and bore the badge 
of the particular club. They had slashed sleeves 
through which puffings of fine white linen shirts 
were pulled. Upon their shoulders they wore short 
cloaks of cloth of gold or crimson damask velvet, 
lined with choice fur. Their flowing locks of hair 
were restrained under jaunty little caps of red or 
M 177 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

black silk or cloth, with a handsome jewel at the 
side and a heron's feather. Their pointed shoes 
were of fine red leather pierced at the toes and 
adorned with gold and pearls. Waist-belts of 
leather, jewelled and embroidered, with beautiful 
scarcellcy or pouches, at the side, a golden chain 
bearing a jewelled pendant, and rings on the fingers 
completed the superb costumes. 

Women associates were freely admitted, upon 
the hems of whose tight fitting silken petticoats, 
was embroidered in gold, the word " Calza " ; 
foreigners also were admitted to honorary member- 
ship. The gentildonne wore long sleeves, — lined 
with fur, and beautifully worked cinctures of gold 
and embroidery : their hair was arranged in plaits 
and rolled under golden nets, and their feet were 
shod in jewelled golden shoes. Their fine gold 
chains of interlaced and jewelled rings encircled 
throats and breasts. 

The purpose of the *' Compagnia delta Caha " 
was however not merely the wearing of fine clothes, 
but the direction of State pageants, the reception of 
foreign princes and ambassadors, the performance 
of spectacular games and plays, and attendance at 
solemn Ecclesiastical functions. They also assisted 
at weddings, birthdays, baptisms, and funerals, and 
acted as elegant and audacious State masters of 
ceremonies in general. 

With enthusiasm, each Maundy- Thursday, the 
gay young fellows entered the annual Caccia del Tori, 
which had originated after the first defeat of Friuli 
in 1 164. Three other dates were added, — Santa 
Marta's day, the first Monday in September, and 
the first in October, and the "rings" were on the 

178 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Lido and in the Piazza. Later on every campi had 

its Caccia, and, degenerating as such festivals usually 

do, the places of the gentildonne were taken by 

courtesans dressed, masked, and mannered a /' out- 

rance, 

" Con atttj adorni assai, polite e belle^ 
Le Donne vedi andar^ con tal maniera 
E con lafresca ziera. 
Che H par, che le vegna del Paradiso / " 

The love of sumptuous dress gave a grand 
impetus to Venetian trade, but it led of course to 
many corruptions and exaggerations, — one of these 
was the wearing of enormously high pattens — zilvCy 
they were called. The condition of the calli un- 
fortunately required some such protection from mud 
and dirt, but women went about on shoe-stilts of 
poplar wood and leather which effectively dwarfed 
the slim tall figures of the men. At last an edict 
was issued which forbade this absurd fashion, 
especially in the case of pregnant women : — -filios 
abortivos in ferditione corporis et animc^ sues.'' 
This fashion, by the way, led to many ludicrous 
situations, for many a gallant admirer of a calle 
beauty, tall, commanding and superfine, — dis- 
covered her in her boudoir reduced to natural if 
disappointing dimensions, and forthwith declined 
her charms, and made a not too dignified exit! 

The splendid dogado of Michele Steno, con-^ 
tinued for twelve years : he died early in the year 
1 41 3, at the great age of eighty-four. His obsequies 
were consonant with his fame, and after the excision 
of his bowels and the embalming of his body, 
he was kept many days in State with a cloth of 
gold pall over him and burning torches of pine- 

179 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

wood resin beside him in the old church of 
Santa Marina. Over his tomb were hung the keys 
of Padua, now in the Seminario Patriachale, and 
the marble sarcophagus had carved reliefs and an 
epitaph '' amator justitice pads et ubertatis!' He 
left behind him the finest stable of horses in Venice 
and the cleverest stand of falcons, and, beside and 
beyond these treasures, a disconsolate widow. 

Seven years after her Coronation Dogaressa 
Marina, suffering from plague and expecting death 
made a will whereby she bequeathed fifty gold 
ducats to poor criminals, awaiting execution, six 
gold ducats to a monk of San Stefano, who preached 
to her in the Palace, for prayers for the repose of 
her soul. To the Rector of Santa Maria Zobenigo, 
Nicolo Fusolo, a velvet robe out of which to make 
a cope, and three hundred gold ducats, a gold 
chalice, a cross, a surplice, and other ornaments 
necessary for the sacerdotal office. All of these 
objects the worthy priest was to use during his 
lifetime, and then they were to be the property of 
the monks of San Domenigo. 

The devout testator however recovered from her 
illness and in the Archivio Notarile is preserved a 
second will, dated 25th August 1420, seven years 
after the demise of her Consort, to whom she 
erected the superb marble monument, now, un- 
happily destroyed. The figure of the Doge was 
placed above a marble urn embellished with a 
rich intaglio frieze in which was the bust of the 
Dogaressa in mosaic. After the funeral she entered 
the Convent of Sant' Andrea, upon the lonely 
Campo of that name, far away from the gorgeous 
tumultuous scenes of her reign in the Ducal Palace. 

180 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

In her second will Dogaressa Marina directs that 
she shall be buried, vested in a nun's habit, in the 
cemetery of the Convent, and she leaves twenty-five 
gold ducats to cover all expenses. Upon her grave- 
stone is the following inscription : — 

^^ Hie jacet corpus Serenissimce D. Marina^ 
Uxoris Q. Sereniss. et Excellentiss. Princeps D. D. 
Michaelis Stenus^ olim inclyti Duels Venetiarum, 
qucB obiit die 4 mensis Mali MCCCCXXII. 
Amina euius requieseat in Paee.^' 

This quiet ending to a splendid career is full of 
pathos. She, who had been crowned Duchess of 
Venice amid circumstances more splendid than any 
of her predecessors is laid without worldly honours 
in the simple grave of a pious nun. No canopy is 
now over her save the free air, no gorgeous tapestries 
surround her save the painted clouds and the 
distant Alps, whilst the wide salty lagune is her 
carpet of estate. 



II 



Upon the death of Doge Michele Steno the choice 
of his successor fell first upon Messir Paolo 
Giustiniani, the head of as famous a family as any 
in Venetian story, but a family which had, strange 
to say, never placed a representative upon the 
Ducal throne. The " Forty " however reconsidered 
their vote, and because Messir Paolo was a poor 
speaker they passed on the Corno to Messir 
Tommaso Mocenigo. When his election was in 
the balance Giustiniani spoke up warmly in the 

181 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Council : — '' My Lords," he said, " I thank God 
that you have nothing more serious to lay to my 
charge. Messir Antonio Venier was no spokesman 
but he came to the dogado and found his tongue, so 
shall 1 ! " 

The family of Mocenigo came from Treviso. 
Ser. Giovanni Moceni was among the earliest 
councillors of the infant Republic at the end of the 
eleventh century. The Mocenighi were enrolled 
in the " Libro d^Oro " of 1289, in the fourth division 
of the first grade of nobles. Messir Tommaso's 
spouse was a Cappello, of equal rank to himself, 
but her Christian name is not recorded and 
there is no account of her coronation or her 
death. 

Anyhow the pageants, which celebrated Doge 
Tommaso Mocenigo's election were perhaps the 
most splendid of any ever witnessed in proud, 
wealthy and fashionable Venice. Twenty foreign 
princes and ambassadors sat in the Ducal tribune, 
eighty thousand citizens and strangers packed 
themselves in the colonnades of the Piazza, at the 
windows of the Piazza were hundreds of noble 
gentlewomen and the prizes in the Giostre, — wherein 
the Marquises of Mantua and Ferrara took part,- — 
were burnished silver helmets encrusted with 
precious stones, and costly jewelled golden collars. 
Everybody of note wore heavy cloth of gold or 
rich silver brocade. Never before had such a 
wealth of pearls and gems been displayed even in 
superlatively modish Venice. Every craftsman and 
craftswoman was kept hard at work making things 
of beauty and of value in honour of their new 
patroness. 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

In addition to the State tournaments and 
pageants the Guild of Goldsmiths, — the richest 
trade corporation in Europe, and always specially 
under the patronage of the Dogaressa — arranged 
and dressed a Balordo — spectacle or revel, — wherein 
a cavalcade of knightly figures rode a quadrille 
arrayed in scarlet velvet, — horses as well, — and 
wearing chains of gold and ropes of pearls. The 
fabulous wealth of Venice was never so strikingly 
displayed and this prodigality added immeasur- 
ably to her fame and power. Peace was assured 
for no State could dare to try conclusions with 
her, knowing her vast resources. 

Her population exceeded two hundred thousand, 
— one thousand being men of noble rank, each 
worth from seventy to four thousand gold ducats 
per annum. The State revenues figured at one 
million and a half gold ducats. The navy consisted 
of three hundred sea-going armed vessels manned 
by eight thousand sailors. Three thousand lighter 
vessels had trained crews of seventeen thousand 
men and the arsenal and dockyard hands numbered 
eleven thousand. Well was it said: — ''El Mar 
Xe I fachin de la Terra I'' — ''The Sea is servant 
of the Land ! " 

Doge Tommaso Mocenigo proved himself to be 
the man of the hour. '* Venetian of the Venetians, 
Venice and Venice only was his one and only love, 
indeed he carried his devotion so far that he 
narrowed his views of her, to the proportions of a 
" little Venice " in territory. With an iron will he 
bent all others to his behests, and, as a past-master 
in strategy, he undermined all opposition. He has 
come down to us as '* one of the wisest and noblest 

183 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

rulers of the Venetian Republic," the ninth " Grand " 
Doge of Venice. 

His death-bed was the scene of a remarkable 
demonstration of his strength of character and of 
his solicitude for the welfare of Venice. He sent 
for the principal members of the Council of Forty, 
and, when they were assembled, he pronounced a 
valedictory address wherein he summed up statis- 
tically the condition of the State, enlarged upon his 
own share in its stability, and expressed his wishes 
with respect to the choice of his successor and the 
maintenance of his ideals. 

There were seven candidates for the succession 
and the dying Doge succinctly reviewed the 
qualifications, or the reverse, of each : — '' Marmo 
Caravello is too old, Cavaliere Bermbo limps and is 
blind of an eye, Lionardo Mocenigo is my brother 
after the flesh, Antonio Contarini has too many 
children and his wife still brings him one every 
year, Pietro Loredano is a proud man and too young, 
Gianbattista Badoer is Captain-General, let him be 
satisfied, and Francesco Foscari is an ambitious 
man who sets fire to things but is careful not to burn 
his own fingers. I pray you my Lords not to 
entertain his candidature, for I am convinced, that 
if you elect him Doge, he will bring untold disasters 
upon our beloved city." 

The Doge died in 1423 and his tomb is in the 
church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo with the inscription 
^' Huomo oltre modo desideroso della Pace.'' The 
effigy, sculptured upon the monument represents 
very exactly what Tommaso Mocenigo must have 
looked like in life — a noble form, comely features, 
the curve of the lip indicating masterfulness, the 

184 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

great round eyes daring, the high arched brow and 
cheek determination. 

The week which followed the demise of Doge 
Tommaso Mocenigo was one of deep anxiety on 
the part of all the candidates for the Ducal office, 
probably none of them felt the strain more heavily 
than Messir Francesco Foscari and his spouse 
Madonna Marina. The fact of the late Doge's 
animadversions roused their ambition and fired 
their determination to prove by fortune of election 
the erroneousness of his strictures. 

Ten times in as many days the votes of the 
Council of Forty were cast without result, a clear 
majority of two-thirds was required for a con- 
stitutional decision. Apparently a policy of 
exhaustion was followed until only two candidates 
were left in the contest, Pietro Loredano and 
Francesco Foscari, and the latter and his wife 
were very hopeful of the result. Advocates of 
the rivals in the Council spoke long and bitterly : 
Pietro Orso was for Pietro Loredano, — Bernardo 
Pisani and Paolo Corner for Francesco Foscari. 
Bulgaro Vetterino also took part in the debate 
and denied that Foscari was too poor for the 
position — as was alleged. He stated that his 
client stood with his family for no fewer than 
one hundred and fifty thousand gold ducats. 

At length Francesco Foscari received twenty- 
eight votes out of the forty-one, and Captain- 
General Badoer, who also supported his candida- 
ture, made the usual announcement — ''This is 
your Doge " — to the huge body of citizens in 
the Piazza. At once a tumultuous response was 
made '' Sia ! Sza/" — "Agreed! Agreed 1" and 

185 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

the first contested Dogal election Venice had 
known ended in general satisfaction. 

Francesco Foscari was the youngest of the 
seven candidates for the Ducal Throne, aged 
just fifty-one. He came of a notable family and 
his forebears had rendered yeoman service to 
the Serene Republic. They belonged to Maestre 
but migrated to Rivoalto in the ninth century : 
the Foscarini were a branch of the same family. 
Equal in rank to the Mocenighi, Vernieri, and 
Malipieri, who had given Doges to Venice, they 
reckoned many warriors and statesmen in their 
generations. 

The new Doge was born in 1373 : his father 
was Messir Nicolo Foscari and he had two 
brothers — Donato and Marco. It was said they 
were in somewhat straitened circumstances 
and lived away from Venice to economise. 
Francesco however threw himself into political 
controversy and obtained several important posts 
under Government: in 1407 he was named chief 
of the '^ Forty." 

When a very young man, in 1395, he married 
Donna Maria, daughter of Messir Andrea Priuli 
dal Banco : she bore him several sons and 
daughters, but she died somewhere about the 
year 14 14. Very little has been recorded of her 
but Palazzi, who refers to the famous pack of 
playing-cards at the Museo Civico with effigies 
of the earliest Dogaressas reads upon the "Knave 
of Clubs " : — *' The first wife of Francesco Foscari, 
Doge of Venice, who whilst she was assisting 
at the Coronation of the Dogaressa (Agnese 
Cappello) narrowly escaped a thunderbolt which 

186 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

fell from heaven, but heaven never hurts the 
guiltless." 

Messir Francesco Foscari's young family needed 
a second mother and he another helpmeet, ac- 
cordingly, in 141 5, wedding-bells again rang in 
a new bride at the Casa Foscari. Donna Marina 
was the eldest daughter of Messir Bartolommeo 
Nani a member of a family in the same category 
as the Foscari. She became the mother of four 
sons and five daughters, but most mysteriously 
they all died of the plague in 1425 and 1427, 
except the second boy — Giacomo. 

When his election was completed the new Doge 
determined that nothing should be wanting to 
prove his nobility and the financial resources at his 
command. At the same time the Lords of the 
Council, knowing their man perfectly, added three 
new conditions to the Promts stone : — ist. The 
Doge was required to fund all his private property 
with a reserve of twenty thousand gold ducats 
invested in silver plate ; 2nd. Each of the State 
servants was to receive from the Doge two livery- 
suits per annum ; and 3rd. His effigy and that 
of the Dogaressa were not to appear upon the new 
coinage. 

Her Serenity Dogaressa Marina Nani- Foscari 
made her Entry into Venice and went to her 
Coronation attended by the most imposing proces- 
sion ever marshalled for the purpose. Her 
supporters were the Marquises of Mantua and 
Ferrara, and among her train-bearers were scions 
of the noble houses of Padua, Vicenza, Treviso, 
and Friuli, — it was a regal pageant. The new 
Sala del Gran Consiglio within the Ducal Palace, 

187 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

with all its wealth of painting, gilding, carving, 
tapestry and mosaic in all its fresh and unsullied 
glory — ''the most magnificent room in Europe," — 
was opened by the Dogaressa that she might be 
crowned therein with the minor jewelled Corno. 

All Sovereigns and States gazed at Venice with 
amazement — at the moment the supreme power 
of the world, the most splendid court on earth, and 
the shining example of peace, honour and prosperity. 
Her proud neighbour Florence sought her help, 
and cap in hand, her ambassadors, Palla negli Strozzi 
and Giovanni de' Medici, knelt humbly before Doge 
Foscari. The King of Poland craved from the 
Doge and Dogaressa the honour of standing 
sponsors for his heir, and princes from all round 
entered the city in State and were regally enter- 
tained. The private apartments of their Serenities 
were crowded with splendid offerings, and the Pope 
bestowed his Pontifical blessing. 

A dark side there was however to this glorious 
panorama. Intercourse with the East introduced 
the seeds of pestilence, and in 1424 and 1427 
cholera raged in every part of fair Venice, sixteen 
thousand and twenty thousand deaths respectively 
made huge gaps in every family circle. The Doge 
and Dogaressa, indifferent of their own security, 
mixed freely with the stricken sufferers, and, by 
their efforts, the first pest - house in Europe was 
established upon Santa IMarina di Nazaret. These 
dark clouds rolled away at last, and Venice was 
once more all smiles and blushes ; but upon the 
domestic horizon of the Doge's family appeared an 
evil meteor, small at first but soon to burst in over- 
whelming calamity. 

188 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

The tragedy of Giacomo Foscari is as well 
known as any among all the affecting stories of 
Venice. The only survivor of a promising young 
family of fourteen children, Giacomo was the one 
and only domestic joy of his bereaved parents. 
Upon him they lavished all their affection, upon 
him they fastened all their hopes. Gentle and 
loving In disposition and possessed of talent and 
ambition, the lad grew to manhood petted and 
pampered, in the artificial environment of the Ducal 
Court. Skilled in all the exercises of the Giostra 
and approved in all the elegancies of the Compagnia 
della Calza, the Doge's son was the most eligible 
of all the prospective bridegrooms In Venice. He 
had not long to wait, nor far to look, for his bride. 
By the Promissione of his father he was certainly 
limited In his choice to Venetian maidens but that 
was of course no bar sinister to matrimony, for no 
damsels were more lovely, more lively than the 
young gentildonne of the Piazza. 

Lucrezia Contarini was out and away the most 
beautiful girl In all the gay city of Venice. Her 
family was one of the very first — ''Apostolic," her 
physical charms were of the healthiest, her mental 
attainments the most exalted : indeed Giacomo and 
Lucrezia were an ideal couple, and nothing but 
distinction and prosperity were prophesied of their 
auspicious union. Her father gave his daughter a 
goodly dowry of sixteen thousand gold ducats and 
one thousand more as a loan, and he also provided 
a sumptuous marriage feast. Five palaces still exist 
to prove the influence and high condition of the 
family. Lucrezia's home was the Palazzo Contarini 
degli Scrigni, — or Money-chests, — upon the Grand 

189 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Canal, called so because of the big iron safes full 
of treasures of all kinds it contained. 

The marriage was celebrated on 29th January 
1 44 1, and the nuptial ceremonies and festivities 
were the most gorgeous ever seen in opulent 
Venice. Upon the morning of the auspicious day 
Cavaliere Eustachio Balbi, Chief of the Compagnia 
della Calza and IMaster of the Ceremonies, with 
eighteen young nobles sumptuously attired and 
splendidly mounted, — their horses were caparisoned 
in silver brocade of Alexandria, the most costly 
known, — assembled at the Balbi Palace as the nuptial 
escort of the bride. With all the pride on earth 
the glittering cavalcade, having crossed the Grand 
Canal by a bridge of boats, curvetted through the 
narrow calli and deployed upon the Piazza, round 
which they galloped furiously, on their way to salute 
the Doge and Dogaressa awaiting them in the 
State balcony of the Ducal Palace. Then retracing 
their caracoling steps amid showers of kisses and 
laurel wreaths thrown to and from admiring 
maidens at every window, they recrossed the Canal 
and drew rein before the Contarini Palace. 

Fair Lucrezia, in her flashing bridal-dress of 
white silk and silver tissue and wearing, among 
many precious jewels, a high golden comb set with 
enormous pearls, awaited her escort at the portal 
of the Palace. She was supported by her sponsors 
the Procurators of San Marco, and attended by 
sixty young noblewomen garbed in cloth of gold 
and costly lace, each with her golden casket full of 
white carnations, the Contarini emblem, to scatter 
before the bride. 

The lovely procession — a pageant of fair girls 
190 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

and comely youths — moved in stately grace to the 
Church of San Barnaba hard by, where already the 
Doge and Dogaressa had been received by the 
clergy and escorted to their thrones. Giacomo 
Foscari, the bridegroom, with his supporters, — men 
of his house and young nobles of the Council, — 
all in superb costumes, stood before the altan He 
and his bride, her hand in his, knelt in the centre 
of the prostrate congregation whilst the nuptial 
Mass was sung. 

Venetian weddings were the most magnificent 
in Europe, for the citizens' nuptials were as splendid 
as Royal marriages. There was a strange blending 
of Orient mysticism and romance with the Western 
spirit of progress and reality. One very quaint 
custom was the visit of the bridegroom-elect and 
his best men to the house of the bride, upon the 
eve of the marriage morn. Every door was barred, 
every window and jalousie closed, save one far up 
the wall. A crazy ladder, all too short, was left 
at hand, scaling which, with a fall or two assured, 
the venturesome youth attained the open window- 
sill. Inside the house every door was shut, but, 
running down the stairs, the young fellow drew 
back the bolts of the great door and admitted his 
friends. Then, every room door flew open, and, 
headed by the father and mother of the girl, the 
family and the guests entered the reception-room. 
Bearing in his hand a leg of mutton the happy 
groom approached the father, and, offering it to 
him, said : — " See, your Excellency, take this 
bit of dead meat in exchange for a bit which 
is alive, namely your daughter." The happy 
couple then knelt and received the parental 

191 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

blessing : a banquet and a dance followed in due 
order. 

Whether Giacomo Foscari went through all 
these old-world and traditional obser^'ances we 
know not, but, after the nuptial Mass. the Doge 
and Dogaressa returned to the Ducal Palace where 
a noble banquet was spread before the Lords of 
the Council, the foreign ambassadors, and the 
nobles of the Court and City. Meanwhile the 
'' Bucmtoro'' was steered in front of the Contarini 
Palace, — with many attendant boats, both great and 
small, all gaily decked with banners and wedding 
favours, — to convev the bride and brideoroom to 
the presence of their Serenities. One hundred and 
fift}^ damsels of noble birth, all in festal white and 
richly jewelled, with as many stylish young com- 
panions of La Calza, accompanied the happy 
couple. At the F'mzzetta. an equal company of the 
beautiful and the brave was in attendance to escort 
the water-pageant into the Ducal Palace, and there, 
at the head of the Great Staircase, the Doge and 
Dogaressa, in robes of State and surrounded by 
the great officers of the Court, gave an affectionate 
and dio^nified crreetinor to their son and dauorhter. A 
errand ball was g^iven and a rich collation and the 
night was far spent before the happy, weary guests 
found their link-lighted way to their brilliandy 
illuminated gondolas, and so home and to bed. 

Lucrezia Contarini - Foscari's trousseau was 
superb : — A robe of cloth of gold and crimson 
velvet, lined with squirrel, and a train of white 
satin brocade two yards long ; a robe of cloth of 
gold and peacock blue satin, the deep sleeves lined 
with ermine ; a robe of cloth of gold and green 

192 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

brocade with open sleeves of fine lace ; and a fourth 
robe of cloth of gold and yellow damask lined 
with ermine ; — the four cost Messir Contarini two 
thousand gold ducats ! 

Accompanying these were four magnificent 
jewels for the hair with high combs — one of rubies, 
another of emeralds, a third of diamonds and the 
fourth, a huge Balax ruby — the four were valued 
at three thousand eight hundred gold ducats. 
Fortunate Lucrezia's coffer of jewels also contained 
a necklace of diamonds and pearls, which had 
belonged to the unfortunate Queen of Cyprus, 
Caterina Conaro ; a superb shoulder strap of 
diamonds and pearls en suite, and a range of gem 
rings — four of large rubies, worth two thousand 
gold ducats. The rest of the trousseau would 
require pages to enumerate, anyhow the bride of 
Giacomo Foscari entered the palace, — purchased 
by his father, the Doge in 1428 from the Giustiniani 
for twenty thousand gold ducats, — with four 
immense cassoni full of valuables ! 

Everything about the young couple promised 
human happiness of the highest and the best, and 
all went well with Giacomo and Lucrezia Foscari 
until, in the very midst of their gaiety and fame, a 
crushing calamity befell them with a suddenness 
and an awfulness unspeakable. In 1445 Giacomo 
was accused before the Council of Ten of receiving 
bribes, not only from men in Venice who sought 
social and political gains, but also from Duke 
Filippo Maria Visconti of Milan — the best hated 
and most feared of all the foreign sovereigns. This 
situation was created by the extravagance of the 
young couple, but surely every excuse was ad- 

N 193 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

missible : he, the petted child of parents who 
denied him nothing, and she, whose head was 
turned by her almost fabulously wealthy marriage. 
They were in heavy debt and how to meet their 
liabilities (they dared not consult their parents) was 
the question. 

On the 15th of February, a Zenta or Com- 
mission, appointed to examine into the charges, 
and Giacomo showed at once the weakness of his 
character and of his case by precipitate flight to 
Trieste. His chief accuser was the very Pietro 
Loredano who had lost the dogado to Francesco 
Foscari and had sworn to be avenged for his defeat. 
It was a stunning blow to the old Doge and 
Dogaressa but they maintained their dignity with 
the highest fortitude in face of the declaration of 
the Zenta : — '' Considering the base, disgraceful, 
and abominable, excesses committed by Giacomo 
Foscari, son of our Lord the Doge, against the 
honour and dignity of our State and Government, 
it is resolved that he be condemned to exile, and 
the confiscation of his goods in default." 

In vain the broken-hearted Dogaressa pleaded 
for her son, — her only living child, but stern duty 
was the master of those Venetian councillors, of 
human sympathy they had little, and the Doge 
forced himself to side with them against his boy, — 
an heroic figure, externally impassive inwardly a 
wreck. Other charges were preferred against the 
absent Giacomo, — murder or accessory thereto 
included. He was brought back to Venice to be 
tortured into a confession of crimes of which he was 
wholly innocent, and then banished for life to 
Candia. He made a last and painful appeal to his 

194 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

father, but the broken-hearted old man spoke 
firmly in the bitterness of his soul. " Go," said he, 
"my son, my dearly loved son, go, and obey the 
commands of your country and seek nothing 
more." 

As a last favour, however, his mother the 
Dogaressa, and his wife, Lucrezia with her two 
little children were allowed to bid him farewell in 
the Torricelli prison within the Ducal Palace. 
Never was there a more affecting scene ; poor 
Giacomo's mutilated body and distorted features 
terrified them, and both mother and wife were borne 
fainting away. The wretched man sailed away to 
his place of exile, but he survived his arrival only a 
few short months. Death was a friend-in-need, and 
yet he had not needed to die so young, if Pietro 
Loredano had not again interfered to delay the free 
pardon granted in 1457. 

This Loredano was a devil in disguise ; he even 
protested that the sobs and tears and lamentations 
of the afflicted Doge and Dogaressa indicated 
imbecility and unfitness for office, and he urged 
upon the *'Ten" the risk they ran of his Serenity 
summoning the ** Forty " and haling them for their 
harshness and barbarity before the Greater Council. 
In a panic they hastened to demand the abdication 
of the Doge. The Dogaressa sought the detractor 
of her husband and appealed to him for pity, but 
he pushed her away and scandalously accused her 
of unfaithfulness as spouse and of treason as 
Dogaressa ! 

When acquainted with the decree of the *'Ten " 
the grand old man bowed his proud white head, and 
with dignity exclaimed : — " I never for a moment 

195 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

thought that my old age would prove injurious to 
Venice but I yield to the decision of the Council " 
and then with full meaning he addressed to Pietro 
Loredano who had the effrontery to be one of those 
to convey the sentence of deprivation, he added, 
''Your malice has driven me from the eminence to 
which I have been raised and which I have main- 
tained unsullied for thirty years." Loredano made 
no reply but upon that day's page in his priorista 
or diary, he wrote in a crabbed hand '''Z 'la 
pagati'' — " He has paid his debt." 

On 24th October 1457 the brave and noble old 
Doge and the faithful and virtuous Dogaressa 
Marina bade farewell to the Ducal Palace and 
sought the seclusion of their own palace at San 
Pantaleone. *' Now," said he, " we shall have peace 
in our old age if no joy." A pension of two 
thousand gold ducats was accorded to the ex- Doge. 
All this brutality and haste was apparently kept 
from the knowledge of the people with whom the 
Doge and Dogaressa were highly popular, but 
directly the facts became known a revolution was 
threatened and matters became so serious that the 
" Forty " decreed that no man should name '' the affair 
of Francesco Foscari under pain of instant death." 

Francesco Foscari was a '* Grand " Doge with 
respect to the length and distinction of his reign, 
and also with respect to the dignity with which he 
met and bore his heavy trials. Still in his time 
Venice lost her foreign possessions and her fame as 
the greatest of European naval powers. Too much 
attention was given to trivial matters of domestic 
policy and too little to the imperial demands of a 
strong navy and a forceful foreign policy. 

196 



The Dogaressas of Venice 



III 



The long dogado of Francesco Foscari, — thirty- 
four years, the most extended of any in the whole 
range of the one hundred and twenty Chief of 
Magistrates of Venice, — in a sort of way paralysed 
the life of the Court and the action of the Govern- 
ment. Doge Francesco abdicated at the advanced 
age of eighty-four, and his entourage and that of 
the Dogaressa had grown old as well : — she was 
seventy-two. Youth, beauty and gaiety at home 
were at a discount and the maintenance of the 
naval and military services abroad were inefficient 
and decadent. The times were worn out, and what 
enthusiasm remained in the hearts of nobles and 
citizens went out to other men and other measures. 

The advent of Doge Pasquale Malipiero was 
hailed with a feeling of relief and a spirit of hopeful- 
ness. He was a man of gentle disposition and 
noted for the consideration and urbanity of his 
character. He was most scrupulous ^not in any 
way to derogate from the high esteem accorded to 
his predecessor, nor to wound the susceptibilities of 
the Dogaressa. 

Two days after his abdication Francesco Foscari 
died of a broken heart and Doge Malipiero was the 
first to offer Dogaressa Marina sympathy and assist- 
ance. The State decreed a public funeral but she 
emphatically refused to surrender the dead body 
of her husband. ''No," she said, ''posthumous 
honours are a mockery after official injustice ; I 
will bury my dead how and where I like." Her 
strong and unforgiving attitude is recorded by the 

197 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

pack of Playing- Cards, so often referred to in this 
volume, upon the "Eight of Swords": — " Nani, 
the second wife of Doge Foscari, determined to 
vindicate the fair fame of her husband, by burying 
him at her own expense and not at that of the 
State. Nothing is more fierce than offended 
innocence." 

The Council of Ten expostulated with her and 
declared that, if she refused the order of burial, her 
husband's corpse would be taken away by force. It 
was perfectly well understood however that this 
peremptory action was influenced by abject fear of 
the consequences to the Lordly Councillors should 
full State funeral rites not be accorded to the 
remains of the beloved old Doge. 

At length the Dogaressa yielded reluctantly but 
positively declined to follow the usual custom and 
appear as chief mourner. A pompous procession 
bore from the Foscari Palace to the '' Bucintoro'' 
the dead ruler's earthly casket which was steered 
through kneeling weeping crowds afloat and on rive 
to the FisLZzettdi and thence into the choir of San 
Marco. The great bell of the basilica, — which 
had scarcely ceased its clear, crisp emphatic clang 
announcing the succession of the new Doge, — gave 
forth slow and muffled tones. In the middle of the 
Piazza a halt was called and Messir Bernardo 
Giustiniani, the oldest noble, holding aloft the 
sword of the deceased Doge pronounced a funeral 
oration. 

Upon the bier rested the jewelled Corno and the 
Ducal State robes which Pasquale Malipiero had so 
sympathetically laid aside whilst he walked bare- 
headed immediately behind, clad in the purple of a 

198 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

simple Lord of the Council. After the Requiem 
the procession re-formed, and, with the casket under 
its pall of cloth of gold placed under the Ducal 
canopy, the '' Bucintoro'' carried all that remained 
of Doge Francesco Foscari in stately silence to his 
last resting-place before the High Altar of the 
Church of Santa Maria Gloriosa de' Frari. 

The following day the new Doge re-assumed 
the regalia of his office and helped to prepare his 
Consort for her State Entry and Coronation. In 
14 14 he had married the woman he loved, — Donna 
Giovanna, — daughter of Messir Antonio Dandolo, 
above himself in station, for the Malipieri were of 
an inferior grade of nobility to the '' Apostolic " 
Dandoli. 26th January, 1457- 1458, was the aus- 
picious day chosen for the Dogaressa's ceremonial. 
The funereal cloths which had swathed the 
'' Bucintoro'' were rent away and banners, — 
blazoned in gold and colours, — and great swaying 
garlands of greenery transformed the noble vessel 
into a gorgeous Argosy which, with the Dogaressa 
and her attendant ladies and many maids of honour 
on board, swept gracefully down the Grand Canal. 

The ritual of the inauguration rites was similar 
to that arranged for the Dogaressa Marina Galina- 
Steno, but the new First Lady of Venice managed 
to project quite a personal feature into the proceed- 
ings. As the patroness in particular of the printing- 
press and of the lace-cushion and of the respective 
craftsmen and craftswomen these two guilds were 
specially honoured. Palazzi, in ''La Virtu in 
Giuocco " records that Dogaressa Giovanna was " a 
princess of splendid physical and mental gifts but pos- 
sessed of no private fortune ... in 1469 Giovanni 

199 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Spira dedicated to her the first book ever printed 
in Venice — '' Epistolce ad Familiar es " of Cicero. 

In that quaint pack of Playing-cards at the 
Museo Civico, the " Knight (King) of Swords " 
bears an eulogy of Dogaressa Giovanna with a 
wood-cut of a printing-office, and the following 
inscription: — ''The Art of Printing was introduced 
in Venice by the Dogaressa Dandolo-Malipiero — 
the Press has made the name Dandolo immortal." 

This is perhaps a piece of special pleading but, 
inasmuch as Dogaressa Giovanna Dandolo-Malipiero 
was a woman of culture and the friend of men of 
letters, her patronage of the earliest prmters un- 
doubtedly gave the premier place to Venice in the 
history of printing. Missals, Service-books and 
other books, used in the churches, were printed 
from wooden blocks as early as 1441 by unknown 
craftsmen. With Giovanni da Spira (of Speyer) 
came to Venice his brother Wendelin, and they 
were joined by a French engraver of coins, — 
Nicolo Jenson of Tours, who turned his attention to 
cutting wooden letters and making wooden blocks. 
Their family of pupils and followers, between 1470- 
1500, numbered no fewer than one hundred and 
fifty-five printers of note. Of early books printed 
in Venice, four were produced in 1469, — all with 
grateful allusions to the Dogaressa, — sixteen in 
1479, and ninety-eight in 1489 : — they were chiefly 
Classics, Bibles, and Morals. In 1480 appeared 
the first illustrated book the world had seen in print 
'' Hypnerotomachia'' — ''The Dream of Love." 
Venice thenceforward became and, remained for 
two hundred years, the greatest of all centres for 
books, printers, and publishers. 

200 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

As the patroness of Venetian lace-workers 
Dogaressa Giovanna Dandolo-Malipiero made for 
herself unquestionable renown. She knew, of 
course, by heart the fascinating story of Bella di 
Giovan d'Isola di San Giorgio in Alga, and prob- 
ably she was herself a skilful artist in the exquisite 
craft. Burano was the earliest metropolis of the 
Merletti a Piombini — the offspring of fine thread 
and beaded bobbins, — and the '' Buranelky' or lace 
girls of Burano were as famous then as now for 
their manipulative talent. The gracious Dogaressa 
gathered around her a number of young Igentle- 
women and encouraged them to twist and knot 
the delicate threads. Perhaps they called to mind 
the tradition of the heroines of Aquileia, for the 
early Burano lace is as fine and as strong as the 
interlaced locks of hair, which made such stout 
hawsers for the catapults in that famous siege. 

Just as the bewitching Bella was inspired to 
imitate a beautiful piece of coral seaweed so the 
clever lace-workers of Burano went to Nature for 
their models. Already, in the fourteenth century, 
they had noted the swirling whirlpools of the 
gondolier's pole and the rippling eddies of the 
tide on the steps of the rivi ; and had observed 
the rolling clouds above their heads and the 
distant indented Dolomites beyond the Lagune ; 
and had produced their opus araneum or punto- 
in-aria, — openwork. Then followed quite natur- 
ally, imitations of moving objects around them — 
the sailors, the cordage, and the nets of fishing 
vessels, with bits of flotsam and jetsam, shells, 
seaweed and fish scales, evolving punto-a-reticelli^ 
— network. 

201 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Very easily foliage and flowers of Venetian 
gardens prompted lace ideas ; hence we have punto- 
a-folgiamiy — spray work. Next, fish in ships' holds 
or in crystal bowls, birds on wing and insects, 
appeared in twisted thread as punto-a-groppo, — 
raised work ; and fabled animals, domestic pets, 
and arabesques formed another range of subjects, — 
punto-a-magliay — figure work. Effigies in Church, 
people on Piazza, faces on the Rialto, and many 
other human models came out of leaded bobbins 
as pu7ito-a-quadra and punto-a-burato, — portrait 
work, and so forth. 

Dogaressa Giovanna must have been a woman 
of marked erudition and consummate taste to com- 
bine two such dissimilar avocations as printing and 
lace-making in her heart's interest. Her patronage 
of Burano and its craft directly interested the 
votaries of fashion everywhere, and the women of 
all lands should ever hold her in high estimation. 
Burano became the mother of Honiton, of Valen- 
ciennes and Alengon, of Mechlin and Brussels, 
and the delicate meshes of her lace-work have 
enriched woman's realm with the most decorative 
attribute it possesses. 

Doge Pasquale Malipiero died in 1462 and was 
buried in the great church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, in 
the left aisle, where his Florentine sarcophagus may 
still be seen. With him was laid all that remained of 
noble Dogaressa Giovanna, but the date of her death 
is not recorded — '' Giovanna, the Queen of Lace, the 
Empress of Printing." In the Museo Civico is a 
medal which has, on the obverse, the bust of Doge 
Malipiero, and on the reverse that of Dogaressa 
Giovanna, with the legend: — '' Indite Jo hanne . . 

202 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Alme , . Urbis , . Venatiar , . DuciseT She wears 
the Corno with an ample coif or veil which hides 
somewhat the marks of age : the face is thin, the 
cheeks hollow, the forehead high, and the eyes 
somewhat sunken. The medal is very delicately 
chiselled and is " said to have been the work 
of Pietro Guidizzaro, — a noted medallist of 
the fifteenth century. In the Berlin Museum is 
another medal with a similarly incised portrait of 
Dogaressa Giovanna, but in place of that of the 
Doge, her husband, are represented two beauteous 
Venetian maidens, — representing *' Printing " and 
" Lace-making," — with the legend : — '' Vincit . . 
Honia . . Bona . . Volontasy 

Cristoforo Moro and his Consort Cristina Sanudo 
mounted the Dogal throne in 1462. He was an 
ill-conditioned sort of man, very parsimonious but 
in a way very devout, and as we say now, an 
advocate of "peace at any price." His personal 
appearance was hardly in his favour, — for he was 
short of stature, very stout, and his features were 
marred by a decided squint. The Mori belonged 
to the least honourable grade of nobility, having 
purchased their title after the war in Candia for one 
hundred thousand gold ducats. They also bought 
the Palazzo Lin, the property of an extinct Venetian 
family upon the Grand Canal, and henceforth gave 
themselves all the airs and graces of hereditary 
nobles. Their good conceit of themselves was 
quite effective and quite in the order of Venetian 
social convention. 

The Dogaressa Cristina was the daughter of 
Messir Lionardo Sanudo and Madonna Barbara 
Memo his wife ; her marriage was celebrated in 

203 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

141 2. Once more the Venetians had the spectacle 
of a patriarchal couple installed in the Ducal Palace. 
Notwithstanding her age the new Dogaressa went 
through all the ceremonies of her Entry and 
Coronation with dignity and charm. ''She was a 
woman," Marino Sanudo, her nephew the historian 
says, "of a remarkably gentle disposition and held 
in reverence for her works of charity." 

Palazzi wrote of her in his ''Fasti Ducales " that 
^'she was an example to other gentlewomen in her 
care of the poor." Upon the "■ Knave of Swords " 
in the pack of Cards at the Museo Civico is the 
following inscription: — ''Sanuta, wife of Cristoforo 
Moro, Doge of Venice, raised her voice to Heaven 
only for the good of the people, the gift of Heaven, 
and the Seal of justice." 

A few notable events occurred during the reign 
of Doge Cristoforo Moro. His Promissione, like 
its forerunners, cut down the Ducal prerogatives and 
also severed the last strand of the coil which feebly 
held the rights of the people. The title of the 
Republic passed from " Comune VenetiaruTn " to 
^' Dominium y or Signoria Venetiarum.'' War with 
Friuli broke out afresh and the Doge shrank from 
the responsibilities of leadership until twitted by 
Condottiere Vettor Cappello : — '' Have," said he, 
"my lord less care for thy skin and more for thine 
honour ! " The Venetians had gradually lapsed into 
a state of false security : their fame on land and 
sea made them confident that Venetian supremacy 
was assured. No new battleships were laid down 
and the manning and armament of the fleet were 
neglected until, in 1469, the "Mistress of the 
Seas " received a stunning awakening — the Turks 

204 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

wrested from her for ever her superiority 
afloat. 

In the world of craft and fashion Dogaressa 
Cristina was the recognised patroness and leader, 
but skill and beauty yielded to cheapness and 
frivolity. She set her face against the introduction 
of foreign-made goods and insisted upon the crafts- 
men improving both the materials and the manner 
of their industries. The Church, in the person of 
Frate Mauro Lapi, of the Frari monastery, appealed 
to her to redress the effeminacy of young courtiers 
in the wearing of long hair — '' capiliaturas nimis 
longas al faciunt mulieresT 

Both the Doge and Dogaressa were much 
occupied in arranging and furnishing the newly 
completed private apartments in the Ducal Palace. 
Whilst superintending this undertaking, and assign- 
ing positions for the almost numberless ''Spoils of 
Venice," taken by her Doges, after their victories 
afloat and ashore, Dogaressa Cristina was called 
upon in 1471, to resign her lifelong partner and to 
go into retirement. Year after year spent its slow 
course and at last no one remembered the gracious 
Signora when, in 1533, Martino Sanudo came to 
make his will. '' I bequeath " he wrote, '' to the 
Church of Messir San Sebastiano a very venerable 
relic — a bone of the Saint which belonged to my 
Aunt Sanuta Moro, and which she had religiously 
preserved by way of a charm against the plague." 
This sacred benefaction demonstrated the piety of 
the old Dogaressa, as, by her will, executed in 
January 1471, she proved her charity. 

To the clergy of the monastery of San Giobbe 
Dogaressa Cristina assigned a goodly benefaction ta 

205 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

provide Masses for the repose of her own soul, her 
husband's — the Doge and her father's, mother's, 
and her brothers'. The buildinof of this church 
was due to the Doge and Dogaressa : in the choir 
is his tomb bearing the sculptured recognisance of 
his family — the Moro — mulberry, and over the door 
of the Sacristy is his portrait. Perhaps the natural 
modesty of the Dogaressa forbade hers, as a pendant, 
but her patron Saint San Bernardino da Siena 
stands as a statuette along with Sant' Antonio 
da Padua and San Giobbe — the patrons of the 
Doge. 

Doge Nicole Tron (147 1- 1473) was a very 
different sort of man from his predecessor, both in 
appearance and in character. Tall and extremely 
handsome, an athlete in form and practice, he had 
however two unpleasing idiosyncrasies — a repulsive 
expression and a stuttering tongue. He was not a 
man of good family, but what he lacked in heredity 
he more than made up in wealth. When a 
young man he settled in Rhodes, — a land of gold 
in that day — and acquired by his industry and 
profitable speculations an immense fortune, — 
5aid to be at least one hundred thousand gold 
ducats. 

In 1424 he married Aliodea, daughter of Messir 
Silvestro Morosini of the sestiere of Santa Giustina, 
a significant union of rank and money and a new 
phase in Venetian matters matrimonial. Ambitious 
to prove to his fellow -citizens and the proud nobles 
his worthiness and opulence the new Doge departed 
from the ordinary festive arrangements of the 
Fragilie, and himself spread the banquet for them 
in honour of his Consort. Every attribute of 

206 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

dignity, every emblem of sovereignty, and every 
decorative feature of the installation ceremonies, 
were mounted upon a magnificent scale. The 
robes of State were the richest ever worn by 
Doge and Dogaressa, and right nobly, we may be 
sure, the Serene couple bore themselves. If he 
was handsome she was beautiful — all the Morosinis 
were — a trait which never failed in that splendid 
family. 

The Palazzo Tron, on the Grand Canal, was 
most extravagantly furnished, the decoration of one 
room alone with marble, sculptures, carved wood, 
gilding, and rare glass cost more than two thousand 
gold ducats. 

Aliodea Morosini-Tron was the most attractive, 
and the best dressed gentlewoman in Venice. 
Palazzi goes into ecstasies over her fascinations, 
and he makes delightful play with her popular name 
*' Dea." " Dea " he says, " corresponds with * love * 
and * beauty ' and such were the characteristics of 
the Princess who was truly and indeed the * Venus 
of the Century.' " Once more the old pack of Play- 
ing-cards sets forth the Dogaressa's virtues : — The 
*' Knave of Coins " (Diamonds) h^s : — ** Dea 
Morosini, wife of Nicolo Tron, Doge of Venice, a 
most religious Princess, her humility caused her to 
choose a private burial — Dea se a DioT She gave 
her husband two children, both boys, the elder 
Giacomo became Procurator of San Marco, and the 
younger, — a soldier, — fell at the terrible battle of 
Negroponte. 

Doge Tron died in 1473 and was buried in the 
church of Santa Maria Gloriosa de' Frari under a 
huge monument by the High Altar. He was the 

207 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

last Doge of Venice whose effigy was stamped upon 
the coinage of the Republic. His was a very 
prosperous dogado, and the decline of Venice was 
for a brief space stayed. Victories in the East led 
to the acquisition of Smyrna, and the littoral of Asia 
Minor. Cyprus too came under the banner of San 
Marco. 

Of Dogaressa '' Dea's " good works and influences 
we seem to have no records, save what her epitaph 
recites upon her simple last resting-place at San 
Giobbe : — '' Dece rariss. mulieris illustriss. Dom 
Nicolai Throni inclyti Ducts Venetiarum, Conjugis^ 
humili hoc in loco Corpus jussu tuo conditum est, 
animan vero ejus propter vitcB virtutum et morum 
sanctitatem ad ccBlestem patriam advolasse credem- 
dum est. Ann. Salutis MCCCCLXXVIII." She 
survived her husband just five years and probably 
kept her cell in the fervour of devotion at the 
convent of San Giobbe, far, far away from the 
madding crowd. 

There is an apocryphal story affecting Doge 
Nicolo Tron namely that he was twice married, 
first to Donna Laura Nogarola, daughter of Messir 
Lionardo Nogarola of Verona, and sister of the 
celebrated Isotta, — famed as a writer of interesting 
letters and as a profound classical scholar. Madonna 
Laura herself was conspicuous for her beauty of 
person, her devout disposition, her charm of 
manner, and her erudition. It is a moot point 
with historians whether Messir Nicolo Tron 
divorced the illustrious Laura before he married 
the divine Dea, or whether after all the former 
fair gentlewoman was not the wife of Messir 
Cristoforo Pellegrino Ambassador from Verona 

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The Dogaressas of Venice 

to Venice during the dogado of Doge Nicole 
Tron. A third supposition refers to the hand- 
some and wealthy Doge's adventures in the regions 
of Platonic affection, but of this only surmise 
is possible — facts are wanting, and here comes 
romance ! 



209 



CHAPTER VI 



The Gardens of Venice ! 

— " Veri paradisi terrestri, per la vaghezza 
dell 'aiere e del sito lioghi di ninfe e di semedei!'' 
— in an ecstasy of delight wrote Andrea Calmo, in 
one of his characteristic ''Lettered He was not 
the first by any means who had felt the gentle 
influence of those earthly bits of Paradise, for an 
observant monk, Frate Felice Faber, of Ulm, goes 
into raptures, in his '' Evagatorium TerrcB Saftctce,'' 
over the roof-gardens he beheld in 1457, as he 
passed through Venice on his pilgrimage to the 
Holy Sepulchre. " Full of aromatic trees and per- 
fumed blossoms," he wrote, "nothing can be more 
wonderful, nothing more delicious." 

From the very first foundations of the campi 
2,ndi fonda7nentt gardens had been the chief home- 
joy of all the dwellers in the lagunes ; a sweet- 
smelling flowering-plant was as acceptable to them 
as a piece of bread and cheese. Spread over all 
the sestieri, chequer-like, they added immeasurably 
to the amenities of the city. Time had grown the 
sapling into a shady tree, the sprig into a blossom- 
ing bush. Upon the Giudecca, gardens, — " delicati 
e rari,'' belonged to the Bandoli, Conari, Barbari, 
Gradenighi, Mocenighi, Vendramini, and Gritti. 
At Villa Catteneo was the loveliest of them, all 

210 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

built up with rockeries, splashed by fountains, 
and running over with roses, lilies and car- 
nations. 

At Murano were the most famous of all Venetian 
gardens. Sixteen sumptuous Villa- Palaces sprang 
up like magic upon that sandy sea-shore, and, still 
more wonderful, the magician's wand brought forth 
from alluvial sea- wash, hanging gardens and 
terraced orchards fairer far than ever were those 
of Babylon. 

Afternoon and evening, fleets of gondolas cut 
through the murky water, full of visitors bent on 
pleasure, or to view the splendid frescoes at Villa 
Mocenigo and the glorious statuary at Villa 
Trevisan. 

Every islet had its garden-patch, every family 
spent half at least of each day's playing - hours 
al fresco : everybody was wise in Nature's laws, 
and inspired romance and poetry amid the lights 
and shadows of the greenery, in the music and the 
measure of the rustling leaves, and from the delicious 
air perfumed by fragrant blossoms. 

To realise something of what those villa and 
casa gardens were like, one must traverse sea and 
land to bonny Baveno, and there tell the affable 
boatman to steer his course to " // Palazzo T There, 
resting upon the azurine-green bosom of beauteous 
Lago Maggiore, is a palace like unto a jewelled 
crown, a garden like fabled Eden, all built and laid 
out, doubtless, by garden artists from Venice and 
Murano. Upon that delectable spot are gathered 
all the loveliest things of Nature's second kingdom ; 
— so it was at Murano what time Pietro Bembo 
walked and thought and talked, leading the muses 



211 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

of the grove and the mermaids of the shore in 
mystic dance and song. 

" The strange flowers' perfume turns to singing. 
Heard afar, o'er brightest moonlit seas 
The Syrens' song, grown faint in ringing, 
Falls in sweet odours on dancing trees." 

Alas, where men of letters and women of fashion 
once forgathered in sumptuary and sympathetic 
symposia are wanton weeds and raw rank grass, 
with patches of unpoetic potato and uncultured 
cabbage. Rag-pickers and goat-herds hold unclean 
orgies where peach and cherry trees were wont 
to scatter scented painted petals upon the heads 
and breasts of those that discoursed philosophy 
and whispered love. *' True love," as the Poet- 
Laureate declared, *' that seeks not only perfect 
beauty but god-like also : " expressing thus, in 
Venetian terms, the Greek of Plato, — " The desire 
to possess in one perfect union the beloved being 
and the lovely soul." To kiss the hand and not the 
lips was the theory of those romancists — the reddest 
features of the human frame, the danger-signal of 
the soul, and so they grimaced and so they postured 
under overhanging boughs of acacia and catalpa. 
In his '' AsolanV Bembo sang: — 

" Vita giojosa e car a 
Chi da te non Pimpara Amor non ave.''^ 

The children of Murano now offer visitors 
humble nosegays of seapinks and flowering flags, 
but in the springtide of Venetian poetry and litera- 
ture, the orchards were carpeted with hyacinths and 
anemones, violets and scented stocks. The terraces 
and borders yielded light begonias, banksia roses, — 

212 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

red and yellow, — and carnations of many hues, all 
as brilliant as the painted faces and the tinted 
bosoms of the beauties, who clasped them from the 
hands of their innamorati, to place upon their bare 
and ample breasts. 

Bushes of daphne ordorifica and many another 
aromatic exotic attracted swarms of luminous butter- 
flies, linnets sang in the laurels, and in the myrtle, 
nightingales ; but the strings of guitars and the 
keys of flutes, vibrated by the gallants of La Calza^ 
yielded sweeter music far. Pergolas were laden 
with golden grapes and purple, quinces struggled 
with pomegranates to delight sight, smell, and taste. 
Figs vied with oranges, melons with pines in full- 
ness and in flavour. Solomon's gardens poured 
out no more richly seductive treasures. Shadows 
were cast only by solemn cypress and rocking 
hollyhocks, but through them flashed saffron bees 
laden with pelf from honeysuckle, musk, and 
lavender. 

Men and women, with gay peacocks on the 
lawn, preened themselves in gorgeous costumes, 
conversed in arboreal arbours of all things high and 
low, tossed salutations where the spray of fountains 
cast rainbows in the scented air, and sang, and 
danced, and flirted to their hearts' content. Not 
that the gardens of Venice were given up wholly 
to love and romance, for many a venerable Doge 
and Dogaressa presided at feasts of reason, and 
received the reverences of men of letters and of 
women of culture, who have left their finger-prints 
upon the pages of literature. 

If Pietro Bembo was the Poet- Laureate and the 
leader of the literary revels, as great as he, were 

213 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Aldo Manuzio and Andrea Navagero, — court- 
printer and courtier-poet. Then Francesco Colonna, 
— lover of ''La Folia " and Roman king of 
pageants, — shared with Ermolao Barbaro, — the 
humorist and the satirist, — passionate love of 
Venice. Lodovico Ariosto and Pietro Aretino, — 
empirics and critics both, — made love also to the 
Venus of the Lagunes, in the new Bohemia of the 
island gardens. All the poets sang of " Venus 
Physizone,'' — "Venus the Fruitful," — Venice sweet- 
heart and wife. Benozzo Gozzoli, the Florentine, 
painted, in the Campo Santo at Pisa, the song and 
dance of Venice — the Rispetti and Ballate, — love 
ditties of youth, and the Frottole and Madrigali — 
murmurings of adult romance, — movements in life- 
tragedies. 

Music, step, and cadence, traditional and patriotic, 
were the actualities of lagune life in the open : for 
stage, the garden-plot, the well-head, the gondola- 
herse, and the open campi. Refrains, piped and 
warbled, in calli and rivCy and, graceful and heavy 
measures stepped there, were carried off to sea in 
the galleys of commerce and of war. Sympathetic 
language is everything, in expressive popularity, 
and, if cultured Venetians used Latin and Tuscan 
in lecture and conversation, no tongue of any time 
was so rich in scenes of caressing endearment as 
the common-talk of Venice, no dialect was anything 
like so soft, sensuous, and melodious. 

Historians, great and small, — Martino Sanudo 
and Marcantonio Coccio and many another — for- 
gathered in the gardens, and wrote delightful 
records of fascinating and learned women, as well 
as of bewitching butterflies of fashion. Cristina 

214 



I 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

PIsano, in the fourteenth century, " Mother of 
women writers," and Cassandra Fedele, in the 
fifteenth, — '' Decus Italia,'' Angello Poliziano, the 
Medicean, called her, — were leaders in the great 
Venetian pageant of the Graces and the Liberal 
Arts. Moderata Fonte sang sympathetically the 
glory on Venetian womanhood : — 

" S^ornano il del le stelle 
Oman le donne il mondo 
Con quanta e in lui di bello e di giocondo^ 

There were lovely gardens also at Friuli, 
Asolo, and all along the Brenta, where Venetians, 
— fair and brave, wise and dignified — held revels 
and communings, masked balls and stately re- 
ceptions. 

If you would see and know the Messiri and 
the belle Donne of Venice, in the fifteenth and 
sixteenth centuries, you will find them resting or 
disporting themselves in their villas and their 
gardens. There, arrayed in his official crimson 
velvet robe of semi- State, — you will make your 
reverence to his Serenity the Doge, and, at his 
side you will bend your knee to kiss a gracious 
Dogaressas hand. She has not to bear the weight 
of her stiff State robe of cloth of gold ; she is in 
crimson silk, and her fair hair, hardly showing 
streaks of white, is covered with a becoming veil 
of lace, fixed with great gold and jewelled pins. 
They are the most affable and most approachable 
noble couple in all history, and the younger people 
are all the gayer for their presence, strangers are 
completely at their ease, noble Lords of the Council, 
dignified matrons, the cultured, the artistic, and the 

215 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

seriously-minded, find pleasure and distinction in 
their company. 

By electing Nicolo Marcello, in succession to 
Doge Nicolo Tron, in 1473, the Lords of the 
Council returned to their traditional usage. He 
was a member of one of the eight considerable 
families before 1289, ranking third in the premier 
grade of the nobility immediately after the 
" Apostolic " and ** Evangelistic " families. He 
had, however, in the eyes of the very select, 
lowered himself by his marriage in 1427, with 
Donna Bianca Elena, daughter of Messir Francesco 
Barbarigo, Procurator of San Marco, a distinguished 
member of a family rising rapidly in wealth and 
influence, but only ennobled, with nineteen other 
families, after the Genoese war of Chioggia. 
Madonna Bianca died, probably of plague, two 
years later, and then Messir Marcello again entered 
the estate of matrimony with Madonna Contarina, 
widow of Messir Francesco Morosini. She was a 
Contarini, a daughter of one of the most exalted 
and wealthiest families on the Roll of Nobles. 

Very little is recorded of either the Doge or 
Dogaressa, for their reign was the shortest of any 
in the line of Doges of Venice, — less than a twelve- 
month. There is a very ambiguous notice in '^ La 
Storia di Venezia'' a manuscript history in the 
Museo Civico, which states that : — " Messir Nicolo 
Marcello, aged seventy-six, would not allow the 
Dogaressa, his Consort, to enter the Palace." 
This of course refers to the usual solemn Entry and 
Coronation, but the why and wherefore are not stated, 
and no amount of surmise will explain the matter. 

216 






r 



- ^ i>^:^..' 













'X- 



,.1.^^-J n 



"O-^"^ ' 




A VILLA-GARDEN DANCE 
ON THE GIUDECCA. 

FROM AN ENGRAVING. 1562. 
-MUSEO CIVICO, VENICE. 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

*' This Doge," the manuscript goes on to say, 
**was a very pompous sort of man, and he caused 
the regalia of his office, — including the State 
umbrella and cushion, which had hitherto been both 
of crimson velvet, —to be made entirely of gold and 
cloth of gold. He had a Corno entirely of gold 
and jewels, like the crown of an independent 
Sovereign, and he added, to the State robe of cloth 
of gold, a costly tippet of ermine, fastened down the 
front with solid gold clasps and buttons." His 
ordinary dress was scarlet, but at State functions 
and in Council he wore white or cloth of silver 
under the State robes. 

In his will, executed on 24th July 1473, the 
Doge made some recompense to his spouse for 
the denial of dignity. "To my dearly-loved 
Consort," he deposed, ** I leave eighteen hundred 
gold ducats (her dowry) together with two thousand 
gold ducats. I also bequeath to her the contents of 
my wardrobe, and assign to her, for use during her 
lifetime, my Casa, on the Campo di Santa Marina, 
together with all my equipages, horses, furniture, 
tapestries, and everything necessary for her honour- 
able maintenance as my widow." Doge Marcello 
died in January 1473- 1474, ^.nd was buried in the 
ancient, but no longer existent, church of Santa 
Marina. His monument is now in SS. Giovanni 
e Paolo, whither it was removed along with that 
of Doge Michele Steno. The death and burial of 
Dogaressa Contarina Morosini- Marcello are unre- 
corded. 

The dogado of Pietro Mocenigo (1474- 1476), 
was almost as brief as that of his predecessor. He 
was a veteran leader of the armies of the Republic, 

217 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

fighting for years against the forces of the Turks. 
His monument in SS. Giovanni e Paolo bears the 
epitaph: — ''Ex Hostittrn Manubis,'' in recognition 
of his invaluable services. In life he was something 
of an old-man-in-a-hurrv. for his enersr^' was un- 
bounded and his love of Venice enthusiastic. The 
Doc^aressa was Donna Laura, dauofhter of Messir 
Giovanni Zorzi. We look in vain for records of 
his reign and notices of her virtues : all we have is 
a clause in his Pro7nissione, which granted to her 
and her family, in the event of his predemise, the 
use of the private apartments in the Ducal Palace 
for three months after his death — " so as to avoid 
unseemly haste." 

Fresh sumptuary laws were passed affecting- 
dress and fashions under Doo-aressa Laura : she 
herself, as were all the Dogaressas. was expressly 
excluded along with her Dozete or daughters, from 
their operation. In 1474 long trains were forbidden, 
but quite easily this was disregarded for some 
inventive mind or other, — a stylish craftswoman 
doubtless, — created a new thino; of beautv, which 
became a joy to train wearers, a jewelled gold 
banorle. throuo-h which the corner of the oftendincr 
garment was caught up when occasion demanded ! 

Lionardo Bota. the Milanese ambassador to 
Venice in 1476. put on record that the gentildonne 
of Venice had reached such a lavish style of 
dressing that he ''could not conceive how their 
costumes could ever be more ororo^eous : manv 
ladies boasted that several of them cost more than 
live thousand ducats apiece ! " A decree of the 
Tribii7ia!e delle Pomve was issued to check and 
moderate the excessive expenditure. Cosdy gold 

218 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

and pearl embroideries were forbidden together 
with point-lace with gold and silver thread, and 
gold tassels with drops of precious stones. Belts 
and charms were ordered to be less jewelled and 
less massive. 

Andrea Vendramin and Regina Gradenigo 
were acclaimed as Doge and Dogaressa of Venice 
in 1476. He belonged to a family ennobled after 
the Chioggian War and accounted among the 
wealthiest. Messir Vendramin appears to have 
made his fortune in the commercial pursuits of his 
family, and, settling for some years in the Greek 
island of Rhodes, as a purveyor and provision 
merchant amassed a fortune of no less than one 
hundred and sixty thousand gold ducats. Trades- 
man, or no, he was a man of rare artistic tastes and 
a keen antiquarian. Upon the dispersal of the 
collections of Doge Marino Falier his grandfather 
purchased everything of special .value and interest, 
and through his father, Messir Andrea inherited the 
treasure, to which he added very considerably. 
The Catalogue of the Vendramin Museum and 
Gallery filled sixteen portly volumes. 

The Dogaressa was a daughter of Messir 
Andrea Gradenigo of an " Apostolic " family, and 
much the superior of her husband in rank : she 
married the future Doge in 1426. Six daughters 
were born to the noble couple, for each of whom 
their father apportioned the very goodly dowry of 
seven thousand gold ducats, but upon one condition 
that he should choose their husbands ! As a young 
man Andrea Vendramin was said to have been one 
of the handsomest and most courtly gentlemen of 
the city. 

219 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Dogaressa Regina made her solemn Entry with 
all the pomp and circumstance customary for that 
event, — but she was not crowned. This was the 
first step in the declension of the splendour and 
quasi-soverelgnty of the First Lady of Venice. 
Gradually the Dogaressa had been accorded, and 
had assumed dignity upon dignity : henceforward 
she was as gradually to lose her distinctions. 

The dogado of Andrea Vendramin synchronised 
with the most disastrous period in Venetian history. 
" He died," wrote Ruskin in his *' Stones of Venice,'' 
'' leaving Venice disgraced by sea and land, with 
the smoke of hostile devastation rising in the blue 
mists beyond Friull." His death in 1478, was due 
to pestilence, which followed the ravages of the 
Turks, carried to the shores of the lagunes, " from 
the Orient by the ships of the new Mistress of the 
Seas, the supplanter of the Supremacy of the Queen 
of the Adriatic." He was burled in the now ruined 
Church of Gli Servi, but during the nineteenth 
century his monument was removed, with many 
others, to the Venetian Pantheon of SS. Giovanni e 
Paolo. 

Dogaressa Regina survived her Consort many 
years, but of her end we have no account. There 
is, in the Museo CIvico, a curious picture, apparently 
commemorative of her Solemn Entry, with the 
following Inscription : — '* Regina Gradenigo Andrece 
Vendram, Veni^ PrincepSy Uxor^ Senioribus ac 
Propinquis comitata ingenti populi plausa Regiam 
Aulam ingreditur MCCCCLXXVIT 

Giovanni and Taddea Mocenlgo assumed the 
Corno in 1478. He was a younger brother of Doge 
Pietro Mocenlgo, the third member of his family 

220 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

within the century to mount the Ducal throne — a 
circumstance only paralleled by the Dandoli since 
the far-off days of the Particepazi, Candiani, Orseoli, 
and Michieli. The Dogaressa was a daughter of 
Messir Giovanni Michielo and vindicated in her 
person the assertion often made, that "succession 
through the female line is always more certain than 
through the male," — the last Michielo Doge, — 
Vitale II. — died in 1172. 

In the February of the year of their accession 
the Sultan of Constantinople sent an embassy to 
Venice seeking terms of amity and reciprocity and 
bearing costly gifts to their Serenities, and also 
many presents for the principal nobles. Among the 
offerings was a magnificent Oriental carpet, — the 
like of which the Venetians had never beheld, — 
a number of handsome jewels for the Dogaressa, 
and a weird collection of new animals. Both the 
Doge and his Consort had a hobby for wild animals 
and greatly added to the number of such creatures 
in the Venetian Zoological Gardens — now the 
Giardino Reale — established in 13 10 under the 
dorado of Pietro Gradenigo. 

The arrival of these beasts, among them a 
giraffe, — hitherto an unknown animal save in 
fiction, — caused wild excitement in Venice, and, 
like its brother in Florence, it was the recipient of 
caresses by the nuns in the convents to whom it 
was exhibited. Unfortunately, the whole collection 
perished in a calamitous fire which burnt out, not 
only the beasts' dens, but also ravaged the private 
apartments of the Doge and Dogaressa, and 
destroyed the whole sequence of portraits of former 
Doges, besides many priceless art treasures. 

221 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Unhappily Dogaressa Taddea, herself, perished 
in October of the year of her Coronation. — a victim, 
with many of the gentlewomen of her Court, — of 
the terrible scourge of the Black Death. Her 
funeral obsequies were conducted upon the most 
lavish scale, — quite the most sumptuous of any 
public funeral in \'enetian histon.-. The ceremonial 
was identical with that obser\-ed at the burial of a 
Doge, but far more impressive by reason of 
universal mourning — a "Mother of Israel" was 
borne through a sea of human tears to her las: 
resting-place. After the operation of embalming. 
her body was first exposed in State within the Sala 
de' Pioveghi, within the Ducal Palace, thence it was 
escorted to the no longer existent parish church of 
San Geminiano, in order that the poorer people 
mieht the more easilv view the remains of their 
benefactress. Arrayed in her Coronation robes. 
with the smaller Ducal Corno on her head, and the 
face covered with a delicate lace veil of Burano, she 
was watched by a succession of nuns from San 
Zaccaria and of PinzoccJiere, or noble recluses, in 
the exercise of their functions as State mourners. 

The place of ultimate sepulture was the grand 
church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo. The corteo-e was 
accompanied by the clerg\- of the City churches, 
members of the various monastic Orders, the 
chapters and officials of San Marco and San Pietro 
di Castello, the ti\& Scuok de BatUidi, the three 
Ordiyii delle Pinzocchere. the Lords of the Council, 
the foreisrn ambassadors and a larc^e followinsf of 
Masters and officers of the Craft Guilds with their 
banners furled. Twenty noble relatives of the 
Doge and Dogaressa held the pall, and the bier 

222 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

was carried by relays of workmen from the Arsenal. 
The Ducal regalia was borne by the Officers of 
State, but the one absentee was the widowed Doge, 
— broken-hearted he remained inconsolable in his 
private apartments. 

A splendid catafalque erected in the nave of the 
church was guarded by the Doge's body-guard of 
one hundred Captains of Marine. This '' Triumph 
of Death " ended with the interment of the beloved 
Dogaressa in the grand sarcophagus which Doge 
Mocenigo had prepared for himself and his spouse. 
He poor man was not only utterly prostrated by 
the sudden and unlooked-for death of his dearly- 
loved wife, but he was also deeply distressed by 
the ravages of the pestilence. Venice was for the 
nonce a pest-house, full of dead and dying people, 
with few able and willing to bury them. Scenes of 
savagery were to be witnessed in every casa and 
calle and the Beccamorte went about collecting 
corpses for submersion in remote deep waters of 
the lagunes, — funeral pyres were lighted in the 
distant campi. In 1485 Doge Giovanni Mocenigo 
followed his lamented Consort in a similar 
''Triumph," and his body was laid beside hers 
under the huge monument which occupies the whole 
wall-space near the grand portal of SS. Giovanni 
e Paolo. 



II 



For a graphic account of Venice and the 
Venetians, at the close of the fifteenth century, the 
pen-pictures drawn by a Milanese monk, passing 
through Venice in his " Viaggio a Gerusalemme,'' 

223 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

and published in 1494, are most interesting. He 
affirms first of all that ** it is not possible to describe 
fully the charm, the magnificence, and the wealth of 
the City." He assisted at the High Mass and 
Procession on Corpus Christi Day at San Marco 
and on Piazza. " The robes of velvet, crimson, 
purple, and yellow, and the togas of cloth of gold 
sweeping the ground, each finer than the last, were 
wonderful." There was "great silence, such as I 
never before observed even at the very large 
gathering of nobles. Everything was well ordered 
as though ruled by one master. I have considered 
the quality of these Venetian courtiers, who for the 
most part are fair complexioned, slim, and tall, and I 
can quite readily believe their reputation for astute- 
ness in their dealings. You must if you would treat 
successfully with them, keep your eyes and ears 
wide open. They are very proud, and I think it is 
because of the eminence of Venice afloat and ashore. 
When a son is born to Venetian parents they say 
' another young Lord has come into the World.' 
At home they are fairly simple in their living but 
abroad, in public, they are lavish with their gifts and 
enjoyments. The richness of their dress is inde- 
scribable, but out of doors every man wears a full 
toga of black and none but a born fool would venture 
without it." 

The worthy Frate goes on to talk about the 
women and girls and their dress. " The married 
ladies and those no longer of the company of the 
del/e giovane are all covered, in the streets and in 
church, in sombre cloaks, they look like widows or 
nuns of the Benedictine Order ; it needs but the bell 
or the trumpet announcing the festa for them to 

224 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

assume the most splendid garments that women 
possess, and their jewels are wonderful. The young- 
girls are beautiful and full of fun." 

Monk as he was Casola was taken, as was the 
Venetian custom, when a marked distinction was 
paid to an honoured foreign guest, to witness '' the 
unique spectacle " as he calls it of a lying-in-mother. 
She was the wife of Messir Agnello Delfino, of that 
noble family. With him went an envoy of the 
King of France, and he judged that Messir Delfino's 
motive in this particular case was to astonish his 
visitors by Venetian magnificence even in the 
privacy of the home. ''The room," he says, **had 
a charming piece of Carrara marble picked out with 
gold, and chiselled so as Praxiteles and Pheidias 
could not have bettered ; the ceiling was so finely 
decorated with gold and deep blue, and the walls 
so finely hung that I cannot describe the effect. 
There was so much gold everywhere that I am not 
sure whether Solomon in his golden glory would not 
have looked small. Among the ornaments was a 
dish of gold valued at about five hundred gold 
ducats. The bed was of cedar or some such sweet 
scented wood and gilded, but of the ornaments and 
dress of the noble lady I think it best to keep 
silence rather than speak for fear no one would 
believe me. My attention was called off perhaps by 
the five-and-twenty lovely young noble ladies, each 
one fairer than her neighbour, seated around the 
bed, their blonde hair elaborately puffed and their 
features touched up with colour. Their dresses 
were discreet alia Venegiana: they showed no 
more than six finger-breadths of bare breast below 
their shoulders, back and front. These damsels 
p 225 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

had so many jewels on their heads and around their 
throats, and wore so many costly rings, — precious 
stones, pearls, and gold, — that we, who talked the 
matter over afterwards, came to the conclusion that 
the total value far exceeded one hundred thousand 
gold ducats. Their faces were superbly painted and 
so was the rest of them that was bare." 

This "unique spectacle," later, became a scandal, 
and the authorities stepped in to amend the customs 
attending child-birth. Lying-in-women of all classes 
were forbidden to receive the visits of strangers in 
their bedrooms, near relatives alone were admitted, 
under a fine of thirty gold ducats. The Chief of 
the Cabinet of Ceremonials was the officer charged 
to see that the decree was duly observed. He had 
the right of entry at child-birth into the very 
presence of the mother, and was directed to remove 
in custody any unauthorised person. The penalty 
was absurdly severe — three months'* imprisonment 
in the dungeons and three months in the penal 
galleys ! This edict however was easily evaded, 
servants, midwives and even police were open to 
receive bribes for silence and acquiescence. 

The noble mother was usually dressed entirely 
in white silk, her cap was of fine Burano lace, upon 
her fingers she wore her rings. Her pillows were 
of embroidered white silk, and trimmed with white 
lace, the coverlet was rich damask-silk padded and 
stitched, and often as not fringed and tasselled with 
gold. Midwives were required to notify a birth 
within three days and to give the name and resid- 
ence of the putative father. The parish priest had 
to register the sex and name of each child offered 

for baptism. 

226 




"LE NOVIZE."— BRIDES VISITING THEIR RELATIVES. 

FROM A PRINT. 1560. 

" Habiti Delle Donne." — G. Franco. 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

With respect to the entertainment of visitors 
very many more friends and neighbours looked in 
after the birth of a boy than that of a girl. They 
were served in vessels of gold and silver with spiced 
cakes, iced confectionery, figs, grapes, and coffee, 
and each was expected to leave a present behind for 
the child and ample largesse for the servants. This 
duty fell constantly to the lot of the Doge and 
Dogaressa who frequently went from house to house 
to honour this or that noble couple, with their pre- 
sentations. The Doge's gift was a gold cup, the 
Dogaressa's a gold chain. 

The last two Doges of the century were the 
brothers Marco and Agostino Barbarigo, sons of 
Messir Francesco Barbarigo and Madonna Caterina 
Morosini. The Barbarigo came originally from 
Trieste and claimed to be collaterals of the ancient 
and extinct family of Zobenico, which, in the tenth 
century was already settled in Rivo-Alto. Marco 
Barbarigo was elected Doge in 1485, — ''a man," if 
his epitaph may be believed, " upright in his dealings 
with his neighbours, he never sought praise or 
profit, but laboured for the public good." The 
Dogaressa was Madonna Lucia Ruzzini, — beautiful 
and talented, although Marino Sanudo refers to 
her incidentally as nothing more than ''a very toler- 
able kind of woman." She was always ailing, and 
yet by way of proof that *'a creaking gate hangs 
long," she outlived her Consort ten full years, but 
her reign was as uneventful as it was short, one 
brief year, no more. 

The Doge and his younger brother Agostino 
were never on good terms, and the disputes 

227 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

between them became so acrimonious that, one day, 
after an unusually harsh quarrel. Doge Marco fell 
ill of excitement and worry, and was seized with 
severe cardiac pains. Feeling the stringency of his 
attack and fearing the imminence of death, he 
summoned to his couch his four sons. He set 
before them their duty to the State and commended 
their suffering mother to their filial care, then he 
embraced them and her tenderly and blessed them, 
and, forgiving his headstrong brother, he quietly 
passed away. His body was laid in State with full 
honours in the Sala de Pioveghi and then ceremoni- 
ally buried in the church of Santa Maria della 
Carita, the conventual buildings of which, and 
the Scuola Grande di Santa Maria della Carita, — 
the oldest of the religious corporations of the 
thirteenth century, — are nowadays the Palace of 
the Accademia. 

Dogaressa-do wager Lucia Ruzzini-Barbarigo's 
will was executed in 30th July 1496, — fourteen days 
before her death, — wherein she directs that her 
burial shall be " conducted simply in the Church of 
Santa IMaria della Carita, where reposes the body 
of my husband." ..." To Sister ]\Iargherita, 
Prioress of the Ospedale d Ognissanti di Murano I 
leave five gold ducats and my new silken robe." 
To her daughters, both cloistered nuns of Ognissanti, 
she left her State robes and her Corno, with five 
gold ducats apiece. She was interred by her 
husband's side. 

The Dogaressa had, among other dependants a 
Circassian slave, who bore the name of Maddalena, 
and to whom she was much attached. She had 
served Madonna Lucia and her family with fidelity 

228 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

for many years, now the testatrix declared her 
*' free from every chain " and bequeathed to her a 
comfortable competence. This mention of a 
'* slave " opens out a vexed subject. Far away in 
the eighth century the early Venetian merchant- 
adventurers, vigorous and amorous by nature and 
disposition, saw and loved beauteous maidens in 
Eastern ports. The harem life appealed to them 
and many an one became the happy possessor, by 
right of purchase, of helpless friendless damsels. 

Oriental slaves were gladly welcomed as workers 
by the Trade Guilds, especially by the Carpet- 
weavers, the Makers of cloth of gold and silver 
tissue, and the Armourers. Public slave auctions 
were established at San Giorgio in Rialto. The 
average price for boys and girls seems to have been 
twenty-five gold ducats ; but as many as eighty or 
one hundred changed hands for a particularly fine 
specimen of humanity or for one skilled in craftsman- 
ship. These human chattels were well protected by 
State enactments and often as not they exercised 
considerable influence in the families of their owners. 
The wills of Venetians of property generally con- 
tained clauses indicative of wishes concerning their 
slaves. 

In Florence, as Madonna Alessandra negli 
Strozzi has related in her '' Letter e,'' people pre- 
ferred dark-haired, swarthy Tartars, who she says, 
**are the best for work, and most simple in their 
ways," but in Venice, — where the sun turned all 
maidens' hair into strands of gold, — fair-skinned 
auburn-haired Circassians, like Dogaressa Lucia 
Ruzzini-Barbarigo's devoted Maddalena, were in 
most request. They were usually skilful in the 

229 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

artifices of the toilet and well adapted for the 
Venetian sol fa nienti sort of life. The presence 
of slaves in Venice and their absorption into the 
private life of the nobles and the citizens were para- 
mount factors in the evolution of the courtesan. 
Whilst marriage with a slave was absolutely for- 
bidden, the mutual relations of the races and of the 
sexes were such that perhaps the motto of our 
British Royal House is the best vindication : — 
*' Honi soil qui mat y pense ! " 

The painful circumstances which led to Doge 
Agostino Barbarigo's succession were soon for- 
gotten in the revived life and prosperity of the 
Republic. It appeared as though, after flickering 
fitfully for many a weary year, the golden wax 
candles of Venetian shrines were again to burn 
with their wonted brilliancy. Venice recovered 
Rimini, Faenza, Brindisi, Otranto, and many other 
possessions on the Adriatic, and her flag once more 
flaunted proudly on the high seas. The following 
couplet succinctly set forth the glories of the depart- 
ing century : — 

" Polente in guerra et arnica di pace 
Venetia el ben' commun sempre le piace."*^ 

Still the discovery by the Portuguese in i486, 
of the water-way to the Orient round the Cape 
of Good Hope augured ill for Venetian com- 
merce. So, directly, too, that other great maritime 
achievement, — the landing of Amerigo Vespucci of 
Florence, and Cristoforo Colombo of Genoa, upon 
the shores of the New World affected adversely 
the supremacy of the '' Mistress of the Seas." 

Doge Agostino Barbarigo, born in 141 9, had a 
230 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

brilliant career before he mounted the Ducal throne. 
Podesta of Verona and of Padua, Procurator of 
San Marco, he was a personal friend of the Pope 
Alessandro VI., who sent him the rare distinction 
of the ''Golden Rose." Remarried in 1449 Donna 
Elisabetta, daughter of Messir Andrea Soranzo dal 
Banco, *' One of the proudest ruling families in 
Venice." One son, Francesco, and four daughters 
blessed their union, — two of the latter entered Re- 
ligion as nuns of Santa Maria degli Angeli di Murano. 

Seven years after their succession Doge Agostino 
and Dogaressa Elisabetta were called upon to 
entertain a very distinguished visitor, Duchess 
Beatrice d'Este the consort of Duke Lodovico il 
Moro of Milan. As imperious and intriguing a 
beauty as ever boarded the '' Bucintoro'' the 
Princess was conducted in a pageant from Fusina 
to the Ducal Palace. Her suite counted princes 
and ambassadors and a host of attendants, so large 
indeed that three Palaces, — the Foscari and 
Guistiniani were requisitioned for her use. Very 
splendid fetes were given in her honour. She 
remained in Venice for some time delighted with 
the pleasant society of the Dogaressa, and the 
ladies of the Court, and astonished at the beauty 
of the younger noblewomen and the comeliness of 
the young nobles, and perhaps, woman-like more 
than all at the splendour of their costumes and the 
magnificence of their jewels. 

Her mission was diplomatic, to gain over Venice 
to the Milanese League against Charles VHI. of 
France. In this she was completely successful ; 
few of the proud and unemotional Lords not yield- 
ing to her blandishments. Her correspondence 

231 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

with her Consort is quaint as quaint can be. She 
likens the older nobles and their ladies to ''great 
dolls" or ''Stately Deities," and makes sly remarks 
about the scanty ^dress and easy manners of the 
girls. "They are," she wrote, "clothed in pearls 
and gold chains from head to toe, but little else 
. . . cloth of gold is as common here as fustian 
is with us . . ." 

Whether caused by weariness of a prolonged 
dogado the old Doge began to feel the years 
heavy, and worn by the declension of the fame of 
Venice, Agostino Barbarigo expressed a desire to 
be relieved of his official responsibilities. The 
abdication of a Chief Magistrate had become a 
very rare event, and none of the Lords of the 
Council having any special wish for office, the idea 
was dismissed. However, on 13th September 
1 501, the Doge called a special assemblage of the 
Council, — an expedient rare enough and always 
ominous of trouble, — and presented a formal act 
of abdication of the Dogal throne. The proposi- 
tion was received in silence, but drawing slowly off 
the Ducal ring, he handed it to the Senior Lord 
of the " Forty " and said : — " I leave this Palace 
to go to my own home at San Trovaso, there to 
end my days, and I pray you to be so good as 
to accept my profound regrets." The Council 
however declined to permit the vacation of office 
and the Chancellor, speaking for the noble Lords, 
replied: — "Your Serenity must retain your high 
station and trust in God to heal you of your 
infirmity." 

Ten days later the Doge breathed his last at 
the advanced age of eighty-two. His end was 

232 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

sudden and painless. At first his career had been 
viewed with satisfaction and his many excellent 
qualities highly extolled, but disappointed suppliants 
for his patronage and that of the Dogaressa hinted 
at nepotism and favouritism and complained of 
corruption in his bestowal of favours. 

What special part Dogaressa Elisabetta took 
in maintaining the dignity and prerogative of her 
station we know not, nor do we know anything 
about her Entry and Coronation, or her death and 
burial. Her Consort left an inordinately lengthy 
will with many codicils : he appeared to be deter- 
mined to spread his bequests over as wide a field 
as possible. Almost every public institution re- 
ceived a legacy and personal gifts were numbered 
by the dozen. To his widow, '' Ixabela," — he calls 
her, — the Doge left the use of their private residence, 
with the furniture and decorations, the ornaments 
of the private chapel, the revenues from certain 
wool and silk weaving factories, ten thousand gold 
ducats, and, quite quaintly, the proprietary rights 
over her State robes and the jewellery he had 
given her. 

The funeral of Doge Agostino Barbarigo was 
conducted with the usual impressive ceremonial at 
SS. Giovanni e Paolo, where orations were de- 
livered by Bishop Domenigo Venier of Castello 
and Condottiere Vettor Cappello — who appears to 
have taken the Doges of his time under his special 
tutelage. The actual burial was conducted at Santa 
Maria dellaCarita, alongside the grave of Doge Marco 
Barbarigo. His monument bears the somewhat 
pedantic epitaph : — ''He was the most popular man 
in Venice : a grand orator and a splendid soldier." 

233 



The Dogaressas of Venice 



III 



LiONARDO LoREDANO was the eleventh "Grand" 
Doge of Venice. Mentally and physically he was 
a perfect type of the Venetian noble, — not that his 
family was especially ancient, — they belonged only 
to the first division of the second grade of 
nobility, — nor that his wealth and influence were 
remarkable, but there was about him something or 
other which manifested the highest expression of 
Venetian dignity. 

Called to the supreme magistracy in 1501, 
Loredano roused himself, although past sixty-six 
years of age, and beginning to show signs of failing 
health, to stand foremost among the men of the 
new Century. Tall and spare of figure, massive 
and reticent of feature, passionate yet kind-hearted 
in disposition, pushful yet tactful in bearing, he 
was recognised by the Lords of the Council as the 
man of the hour. All this is forcibly expressed 
in the lifelike and superb portrait by Giovanni 
Bellini in the National Gallery in London. 

Nevertheless his election was challenged by 
the populace, gathered tumultuously on the Piazza. 
The cry was for Filippo Tron, son of old Doge 
Nicolo, older by ten years than Messir Loredano, 
very fat, very indolent, and ver/ self-indulgent, 
but ever ready for a joke and to make fair 
promises. - Moreover his estate totalled eighty 
thousand gold ducats against Lionardo Loredano's 
modest thirty thousand. Happily with the sane 
constitution of Venice, the unintelligent and ill- 
directed will of the people was kept under restraint. 

234 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Tron died suddenly of apoplexy after a heavy 
gorge within three months of Loredano's election. 
Messir Filippo was no opponent of the old 
Venetian proverb: — '' Dieta magga le medico!'' 
'' Diet dishes the Doctor ! " 

The new Doge had four sons, Lorenzo, 
Girolamo, Alvise, and Bernardo, but he was a 
widower, — a rare, perhaps unique, circumstance so 
far as the dogado was concerned. The mother of 
his sons, Giustina Giustiniani, died the year before 
the death of his predecessor — Doge Agostino 
Barbarigo. It appeared as though he was expected 
to contract a second marriage for his Promissione 
required that '' the Dogaressa, his sons, nephews and 
nieces and other near relatives, should receive no 
gifts under a penalty of twenty-five gold ducats for 
each ducat value." An oath was enjoined for 
"the Dogaressa-to-be to observe strictly all the 
conventions of her exalted position." 

The reign of Lionardo Loredano was one of 
the most important in all the long succession of 
Doges, for Venice passed through the most exigent 
crisis of her history. '' The famous League of Cam- 
brai " was aimed at nothing short of the annihilation 
of the Republic. The Pope Julius IL, the Emperor 
Maximilian IV., the King of France, Charles XII., 
with the Dukes of Florence and Milan were allied, 
and they tried to win over the Kings of Spain and 
Naples, of Hungary, and of Scotland, with the 
Duke of Saxony. England was neutral, but 
friendly ; indeed Henry VIII. championed the cause 
of the Republic, and ultimately offered to attack 
France, Spain and Scotland, and, by way of a 
pledge of amity, he sent an embassy to Venice.- 

235 



The Dogaressas of Venice 



The Venetian Government gratefully acknow- 
ledged the English support and despatched among 
other costly gifts to the King, a team of eight 
cream-coloured horses, with crimson and o-old 
caparisons, the forebears of our present State 
equipage. 

The year 1509 was a black one for \'enice 
and her people. Her armies were severely defeated, 
and the strain upon the manhood of the Republic 
was excessive. Widows and orphans besought the 
compassion of the charitable, and hospitals and 
private houses were full of wounded heroes craving 
creature comforts. Ever}' noble house was smitten 
and the gallant companies of La Calza lost their 
comrades and their joy. That Ascension Day — 

'La Sensa'' — was a day long remembered; there 
were no festivities, no *' Bticintoro '' set forth to the 
''Marriage of the Sea," there was nobody on the 
Piazza, and no visitors had entered the city for 
many a day. the Lords of the Council were broken 
down with grief and apprehension, and the Doge 
neither spoke nor smiled, he was like a man in a 
nightmare. At length a faint rift was seen in the 
darklinof clouds, and Loredano. born discemer of 
times and judge of men, opened the precarious 
ofame of statecraft, after the manner of the chess- 
gambit he loved best, and adroitly played off his 
countr}-'s foes one against another, until he succeeded 
in creating a position of mutual jealousy and mis- 
trust. Spain declared for \'enice and offered ships 
and men. James IV. of Scotland followed suit 
with promises of one hundred and fift\* vessels, and 
ten thousand trained footmen. France made the 
first warlike advance, and the Doge met the danger 

236 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

by setting up floating corn-mills in the tidal ways 
of the lagunes, by acquiring vast stores of grain 
and ammunition, and by throwing chains across the 
chief canals. All suspects were expelled the City 
and every citizen was invited by proclamation to 
rally to the standard of San Marco and to contribute 
as much money as possible to the State exchequer. 
Loredano set a noble example for he sent all his 
gold and silver plate and the jewels of his late wife 
to the Mint to be melted down for money wherewith 
to meet the enormous expenses of resistance. His 
speech before the Grand Council was a model of 
patriotism and eloquence and was rapturously 
greeted. 

War was waged in the mainland for eight weary 
years, during which the Pope placed Venice under 
an Interdict. At last a truce was proclaimed and 
''La Pace delle Donne,'' as it was called, left 
Venice strong by sea and land. The ultimate 
arbiters of a settlement were two Royal Princesses 
— Louise, — Queen - Dowager of France, and 
Margaret of Austria, — the Emperor's aunt. The 
public rejoicings in Venice were exuberant and the 
pageants were the most splendid ever organised in 
the sumptuous city. New Companies of La Calza 
were enrolled for the special purpose of emphasis- 
ing the resources, the grandeur, and the independ- 
ence of the ''Queen of the Adriatic." A very 
favourite spectacular play was '' Miles Gloriosus" of 
which a particularly gorgeous representation was 
given by the '' FaustV in 19th February 15 14 in the 
Corte deir Orefici in the rear of the Ducal Palace, 
which Marino Sanudo describes as '' bellissimo'' in 
its mounting and because of the distinguished part 

237 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

taken in it by the four sons of the Doge and his 
nieces. The Director of the romance was the 
Commander of the garrison, and the interlude 
consisted of an oration by a French master of rhetoric. 
The chorus was composed of a number of gentlemen 
and ladies of the Court very richly dressed, — in 
particular Madonna Giovanna Emo, who appeared 
in a robe of cloth of gold embroidered in coloured 
silk with silk velvet applique work and literally 
blazing with jewels. The play began at seven 
o'clock in the evening, followed by a sumptuous 
banquet, and winding up, long past midnight, with 
a ball. Every one regretted the fact that the 
popular Doge, who presided at the banquet, was a 
widower, — a stately Dogaressa would have added 
greatly to the distinction of the spectacle. 

The recovery of Padua was the crowning victory 
of the Venetians. The news reached Venice on 
the festival of the Translation of Santa Marina, 
and the transports of the people made the popular 
ecclesiastical ceremonial a doubly impressive cele- 
bration. The '' EternV and '' ImmortalV com- 
panies of La Calza, — especially concerned in the 
rendition of High Mass and Vespers with the 
utmost grandeur, — assisted the Doge in offering 
the keys of Padua upon the altar of the Saint. 
Venice was delirious: Mass and "Te Deum " 
were sung between dramatic representations and 
serenades, — for the triumph of the Republic was 
the triumph of Religion. But when the festivities 
were at their height in 1524, the Provveditori alle 
Pompe stepped in and forbade many splendid orna- 
ments of the person and personal vanities. Amber 
beads, agate and rock crystal intagli, diamond 

238 




THE BRIDE-ELECT'S EEBUT. 

FROM A PRINT. 1610. 

" Habiti Delia Donne." — G. Franco. 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

buttons, chased gold and silver buckles and clasps, 
enamelled and gold jewellery for the hair, feathered 
and jewelled fans, lace sleeves, many-hued damasked 
cloth of gold gowns, velvet with gold and silver 
piqu4 threads, painted and gilded leather belts and 
shoes, gemmed embroideries, etc., etc., were placed 
upon the Index expurgatorium. The extravagant 
decoration of gondolas and sedans, table adjuncts 
of gold, resplendent liveries, and many more things 
of joy and beauty were severely cut down. 

Through all these scenes of martial ardour and 
sumptuary magnificence Doge Loredano maintained 
supremely the dignity of the dogado and his twenty 
years of office were the neplus ultra of the gorgeous 
panorama of Venetian history. He died full of 
years and honours in 1521, and he was buried by 
the High Altar of SS. Giovanni e Paolo. 

The Loredanian tradition for patriotism and 
nobility was handed on in the gracious personage 
of Dogaressa Caterina Loredano, sister of Doge 
Lionardo Loredano, — the Consort of his successor 
Doge Antonio Grimani. He was an old man of 
eighty-seven, — one more example of Venetian 
fruitful longevity and senile ability, but his election 
was a narrow thing for after several attempts at a 
decision, the Lords of the ''Forty" approved it by 
a bare majority of twenty-eight votes. Once more 
a popular candidate appeared on the scene in the 
person of another Messir Antonio Tron, son of the 
sybarite Messir Filippo. 

The Grimani belonged to the second grade of 
nobility, their name being among the twenty 
families enrolled by the Serrar del Consiglio in 
1289. Nevertheless they were as ambitious, able, 

239 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

and patriotic as any of the Lords of Venice. Messir 
Antonio had filled every office of State, previous 
to his dogado with rare distinction, and his spouse 
had acceptably participated in his honours and 
shared his fortunes. The date of their marriage 
is not recorded, but two of their sons rose to high 
positions. Domenigo, the eldest, entered Holy 
Order, and was ultimately preconised a Cardinal. 
His fame in the roll of literature is great for as a 
sapient collector of books and prints he was the 
patron of that most exquisite production, perhaps 
the most sumptuous illuminated manuscript in 
existence, the celebrated Grimani Breviary. The 
second son, Giovanni entered the service of the 
State, and brought his talents to bear upon the 
details of the Tariff reform of those days, much 
to the advantage of the City and her purveyors. 
At the Election and Entry of his parents, as Doge 
and Dogaressa, he headed a deputation of the 
Fruiterers' Guild which made an offer of one 
hundred and thirty gilded lemons — surely a parallel 
to painting the lily ! 

The new Promissione contained some arbitrary, 
yet almost ludicrous clauses : — for example, the 
Doge was forbidden to speak alone with ambas- 
sadors and foreign agents, his two State Councillors 
were required to be present at all such interviews. 
Like most of the nobles and wealthy citizens Doge 
Antonio Grimani had a passionate love of sport. 
Among them all, fowling was a favourite pastime, 
the reeds and rushes of the smaller islets of the 
lagunes were splendid cover for aquatic game. 
Sportsmen wore high boots which they called 
jisolari, after the birds held most in esteem — 

240 




OBSEQUIES OF SAINT URSULA. 
VETTORE CARPACCIO 

ACCADEMIA VENICE. 

[The kneeling figure is Madonna Maria Eugenia Caotorta-Loredano, 

who died 1493,] 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

fisoli, — divers. The coveys were approached In 
shallow boats, each manned by eight oarsmen, in 
blue and green liveries, — the colours most in affinity 
with the law of natural concealment. The Signore 
sat in the bows ready with his pecce or miniature 
cross-bow. Doge Antonio Grimani was forbidden 
to shoot, as had been his wont, whenever pleasure 
invited him, for he was restricted to four annual 
sporting excursions. Just before Christmas he was 
expected to assume his fowling dress and make a 
water excursion for the purpose of shooting not 
divers but wild ducks — oselle. His bag had to be 
enormously capacious for each Lord of the Council, 
of the "Forty" and of the *' Ten," required five 
birds dead in the feather! The sportive Doge 
usually failed to bring down sufficient game by 
his own cunning, and in returning to Venice, he 
directed his provvidetore to purchase the balance in 
the Poultry market ! Even so the requirements of 
the Lordly blackmailers were not met quite to their 
satisfaction, for some received fat birds whilst others 
had those In poor condition. The only way out of 
the dilemma was conceived by the Doge himself, 
for, to square accounts, he dealt out so many birds 
a-piece and sent the complement in cash value ! 
This he effected in a novel and characteristic 
manner, he engaged the services of a stamper of 
medals and issued a neat little silver coin, a quarter 
ducat, worth four shillings English money. Upon 
the obverse it bore the similitude of a gold duck, 
and on the reverse, the quamt legend : — *' Par 
osculatcB sunt,'' and this was ever after a yearly 
Christmas-box to all and sundry of their Excel- 
lencies, — it went by the name '' Osella V 
Q 241 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

The Dogaressa s Promts stone was also restricted. 
An outcry from the baser sort of Venetian loafers 
and out-of-elbows nobles, was raised against her 
solemn Coronation. She was denied the customary 
salutations of the Masters of the Trade Guilds at 
the Ducal Palace, and the ceremonial reception of 
ambassadors. Poor Dogaressa Caterina had to be 
content to be the domestic helpmeet of her Consort 
not his State wife as well ! It does not seem that 
for her the wealthy makers of cloth of gold had 
any commission for State robes ! She wore simply 
the dogalina of crimson velvet with full deep sleeves 
of lined satin ; her Corno, — very much reduced, in 
size, — bore pearls, rubies and diamonds ; the velo 
sottile of thin net, not lace, fell from her head to 
her waist, and her golden girdle was shortened and 
unjewelled. Who was the Emperor of Fashion and 
the arbiter of sumptuary conventions nobody knows, 
possibly his office was in commission to the officials 
generally of the Tribunal of Ceremonies, and held 
by pettifogging busybodies and ill-natured nobodies. 

There were and are several Palazzi Grimani in 
Venice. Doge Antonio Grimani's residence is that 
called Grimani della Vida, on the Grand Canal, 
near the far-famed Ca d'Oro. He died in 1523 
but the date of Dogaressa Caterina's demise has 
not been preserved, nor do we know where their 
Serenities were buried. 

Doge Andrea Gritti assumed the State robes 
and Corno in 1523. At once he made a strong 
bid for popular favour and distributed so vast an 
amount of largesse upon his election, that people 
looked askance at him, and cried out in return 
''Um! Uml — Trum ! Trumf' This was an 

242 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

entirely new departure, but Doge Gritti set a 
fashion in making a pompous progress around the 
Piazza wearing his full regalia, when coins were 
scattered broadcast among the spectators, and a 
movable pozzetto, pulpit, or throne, was borne in 
the procession, and, when the Doge reached the 
centre of the Piazza, the youngest Lord of the 
*' Forty" placed upon his head the Corno, and 
an address was offered him in the name of the 
citizens. 

There is no record of the Dogaressas Entry 
and Coronation, — possibly the Doge's progress was, 
in a way an alternative pageant. She was Donna 
Benedetta Vendramin, — a niece of Doge Andrea 
Vendramin. The Doge's family was of no great 
distinction, — one of the sixteen families, ennobled 
when the new Libro ctOro of 1450 was com- 
piled. 

His Promissione of 13th May 15 13, was, like his 
predecessor's, the work of the purist-faddist section 
of the Council. He was forbidden to go beyond 
the narrow limits of the City proper, the gardens of 
Murano, and the sea-baths of the Lido, — the pleasant 
places on the mainland and up the Brenta, were all 
beyond bounds ! A fine of one hundred gold ducats 
was actually fixed for each breach of this ridiculous 
restriction. Letters, to and from his Consort, and 
his children were subject to official inspection, and 
statements therein considered by the " Ten " open to 
objection, placed the whole family at the risk of a 
fine of two hundred gold ducats — remarks affecting 
the status and privileges, the opinion and actions 
of the Council were marked down for banishment 
for a term of five years ! 

243 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

A further instance of the insolent intolerance of 
the Councils *' The Forty " and *' The Ten " and of 
their exercise of tyranny against the idol they had 
set up, to wit the Doge, was in connection with the 
Oselle issued by this Serenity. Doge Gritti pre- 
sumed to have his token-medals stamped with the 
effigy of himself kneeling before Saint Mark, this 
was disallowed. At the same time the nobles sold 
their oselle to collectors, and then disputed the value 
of the Ducal gift ! The '' Ten " decreed the with- 
drawal of this largesse, together with the yearly dole 
of wild duck and instead demanded from the Doge 
the circulation among their Excellencies, at his 
expense, of a new coin of the value of one and a 
quarter gold ducats, — to which they gave the name 
*' ducato d'oselloT Whether the unfortunate Doge 
was able to meet this very heavy annual tax or no, 
we know not. To be mulcted, without the right of 
remonstrance, in a yearly useless expenditure of 
;^iooo was a heavy drain even on a rich man's 
purse. 

Doge Gritti, according to the chroniclers "" was 
a very pliant sort of man," indeed he had need to 
be ! He was also a great eater, and his gustatory 
tastes ran to somewhat vulgar and common-place 
delicacies : his table was served every day with 
'' fat pork, onions and garlic." He had a shrewd 
old slave-housekeeper, one Marta, who alone was 
able to curb his appetite. He gave her permission 
to remove any dish of which she considered he had 
partaken sufficiently, or which she thought was bad 
for him ! In person Andrea Gritti was of handsome 
graceful figure, his temperament was sympathetically 
voluptuous, and he was much admired by the fair 

244 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

sex — a lover through all his life of wine and women. 
It was reputed that he maintained a great establish- 
ment, after the fashion of an Oriental seraglio ; he 
had many Greek and Circassian slaves and some of 
them were of gentle birth. 

Fond as he was of pomp and circumstance he 
was able to gratify his tastes with respect to his 
domestic appointments. His table service was 
unique, mostly of gold and precious crystal ; his 
gondola, alone among the ten thousand gliding over 
the water-ways, was decorated with crimson and 
gold. The sumptuary laws became more and more 
exacting, and, on one occasion, when a niece of the 
Dogaressa appeared at a reception at the Ducal 
Palace in a very magnificent costume of velvet 
embossed cloth of gold with scarlet and jewelled 
embroideries. Doge Gritti felt obliged to order her 
to leave the Court, and return in a less costly 
confection. 

With all his extravagant and ambitious fancies 
Doge Andrea Gritti was a patriot. Called upon 
to make a retort to the insulting language of an 
ambassador of the Sultan, who declared openly that, 
" Till now Venice has wedded the Sea ; henceforth 
it belongs to us who have supreme power there- 
upon." The Doge quietly replied: — ''We shall 
see, Constantinople will fall again perhaps to 
Venice." This menace was followed up by an 
attack in force by the Turkish fleet in 1535. The 
Doge at once expressed his determination to lead 
the Venetian forces against the invader. His 
ardour however met with a snub from the Council, 
and he was advised to reconsider the terms of his 
Promissione. 

245 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Indeed the jealousy and meanness of the majority 
of the members of the '' Forty " and of the '' Ten " 
knew no bounds. The Doge was subjected to 
many insults, and to a secret code of espionage. 
Quite lately proof of this was found, when altera- 
tions were undertaken in the saloon occupied by the 
Arch^ological Museum in the Ducal Palace. Two 
narrow staircases were discovered, at the back of 
what had been the Doge's bedroom, where Doge 
Agostino Barbarigo had erected Pietro Lombardo's 
noble chimney-piece. These steps led to a space 
immediately behind the bed itself, where two mov- 
able panels in the wall permitted any one to have a 
peep at the Doge and Dogaressa (?) in bed and see 
what they were doing ! 

Among the pious works of Doge Andrea and 
Dogaressa Benedetta was the rebuilding of the 
ancient church of San Giovanni Elemosinario. 
The splendid picture over the high altar of the 
Saint bestowing alms was painted by Titian upon 
the Doge's commission. In the chapel of San 
Clemente, within St Mark's is a bas-relief with 
Doge Gritti kneeling before Saints Nicholas, James 
and Andrew. The famous painting by Paris 
Bordone, now in the Accademia, of " The Fisherman 
and the Ring," although ostensibly offering a portrait 
of Doge Pietro Gradenigo really shows the hand- 
some figure and features of amorous and ambitious 
Doge Andrea Gritti. Probably he and his Consort 
were buried in their fine new church, but records 
are wanting. 

*'What sort of a wife has he got?" was the 
constantly recurring question, which, upon the death 
of a Doge, was tossed from side to side in the 

246 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

deliberations of the Council of '' Forty," with respect 
to the nomination of a successor. *' Cherchez la 
femme ! " has no satisfactory equivalent in English 
phraseology, but the French axiom exactly suits the 
condition created in deciding the Ducal vote. The 
Promissione of each succeeding Head of the State, 
one after the other, tended more and more to 
eliminate individuality and initiative. 

As often as not the physical attributes of a 
candidate weighed considerably in the election. 
The question of the spouse also resolved itself 
pretty much upon the same lines. The candidate 
whose wife was of commanding appearance, and 
had a fascinating manner, and who could display to 
advantage the richest robes ever woman was called 
upon to assume ; and also was likely to add decora- 
tive distinction and artistic taste to the State 
functions had an excellent chance of election. All 
this was exemplified in the case of Doge Cristoforo 
and Dogaressa Dea Moro : — he was a cripple and 
proud, but she was a beautiful and accomplished 
woman. Certainly this reasoning is natural and not 
altogether fatuous, for the same economy of selection 
has ever determined the bestowal of honours in 
every nation — and does so to-day — incidentally and 
very aptly illustrating the quaint French mot. 

In the long Roll of the Doges and Dogaressas 
of Venice there were periods where short reigns 
followed one another in succession. During the 
second half of the fifteenth century, 1 471 -1485, six 
pairs of Serenities bowed themselves on and off the 
Ducal throne ; whilst the middle years of the six- 
teenth century, 1 545-1 571, saw an equal number of 
Ducal couples assume the Corno, Many of these 

247 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

reigns were uneventful and inconspicuous, and very 
little is on record for the story-teller to relate. 
Happy is it, perhaps, for the peace of a State and 
its prosperity, when the pen of the historian dips 
seldom in the red ink of episodes. 

iMessir Pietro Lando and Madonna Maria 
Pasqualigo - Lando followed Doge Andrea Gritti 
and Doo;aressa Benedetta 'Vendramin - Gritti in 
1538. Both of them belonged to comparatively 
recently ennobled families ; the Landi as late as 
1450, and the Pasqualighi, one of the thirty ad- 
vanced to honour after the Chioggian War in 1391. 
The new Doge took up manfully the cudgels of the 
State, ready to lead against and fight its foes ; but 
the military element of the lagunes was wear\' of 
debauches and defeats. Accommodations with the 
enemy accorded better with the degenerate spirit of 
the times, than open hostilities. The acutest phase 
of \'enetian retrogression had set in. 

In an inverse ratio the political ascendency of 
Venice diminished, the while her artistic tempera- 
ment became emphatic. She waited, for example, 
until ever}- other painting school had grown to 
maturity before she began to nurse her native 
painters ; but, under Doges Lando and Donato, 
she crowned Titian and his comrades with orolden 

o 

chaplets. They were the first in the Renaissance 
to portray the natural and unadorned charms of 
women. 

The study of the classics and researches in 
philosophy never appealed to \'"enetians generally 
and gave no tone to society. \"enice had neither 
permanent teachers nor libraries ; and her sons and 
daughters had profound contempt for humanists. 

248 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Cosimo de' Medici, "// Vecckio,'' when an exile 
within the boundaries of the Republic, deplored the 
want of scholarship. The ensigns of Venice were 
"Make money and spend it," and ''Grasp power 
and keep it ! " However Doge and Dogaressa 
Lando had literary tastes, and several Venetian 
writers dedicated their works to them. Pietro 
Contarini, of the school of Francesco Colonna, in 
1 54 1, inscribed their Serenities' names upon the fly- 
sheet of his '' Argo Vulga'' and addressed them as 
'' O Sacio Phcebo — O Radienta Luna I " 

The dogado of Francesco Donato, 1545- 1553 ; 
of Marcantonio Trevisan, 15 53- 15 54; and of 
Francesco Venier, 1554- 1556, were uneventful. 
The position of Venice was wholly changed : what 
advance she made before the menace of the 
*' League of Cambrai " was checked, and she began 
to sink into the position of a second-rate power, 
despoiled of her territorial acquisition and robbed of 
her naval glory. Her rulers and her citizens yielded 
themselves to the trivialities of fashion and the 
intrigues of party, and all the industries felt the 
influence of disaffection and indolence. 

Doge Francesco Donato, whose Consort was 
Madonna Alicia Giustiniani- Donato, certainly strove 
manfully to stem the tide of disaster and the ebb of 
decay, and both he and the Dogaressa did all that 
was in their power to encourage art and craft. For 
example he took Tiziano Vecellio under his special 
patronage. He was appointed Head of the ''La 
Senseria " or Broker of the Fondaco de Tedeschi at 
an annual salary of three hundred gold ducats, with 
the condition that he should paint portraits of all 
the Doges of his time at eight ducats a head to be 

249 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

paid by each. He painted Doges Grimani, Lando, 
Donate, Trevisan, and Venier. 

Furthermore Doge Donato added greatly to 
the decoration of the Ducal Palace and the Dogar- 
essa Alicia refurnished the private apartments. To 
them also was due the building by lacopo Sansovino 
of the Libreria Vecchia, called by Symonds in his 
''Renaissance in Italy" "the crowning triumph of 
Venetian Art," and praised by Aretino as " Superiore 
all' mvidia!' The Zecca or Mint was completed at 
Doge Francesco Donato's instigation, as was also 
the church of San Sebastiano. 

During the years 1547- 1549 discontent was rife 
among the glass-workers of Murano. Members of 
this most highly privileged Trade-Guild complained 
that, what with the observance of Church and State 
festivals and the time restrictions of labour under 
legal enactment, the working year was reduced to 
less than thirty-five weeks. From another point of 
view they saw increasing disabilities in the intro- 
duction of foreign manufactures, as Luigi Conaro, 
in his " Discorso Intorno alia Vita Sobria,'' published 
in 1543, has recorded: — "cloth of gold from India, 
porcelain and glass from Sevres, earthenware from 
Birmingham, and other manufactures entered Venice 
freely to the disadvantage of Venetian workers." 

Strangers of rank and wealth were always 
charmed with the rare specimens of glass shown, 
and often bestowed upon them, and invitations 
poured in upon the craftsmen to accompany the 
visitors back to their homes. Such advances were 
promptly declined, for a Murano glass-worker who 
left Venice to ply his calling in a foreign land was 
declared an outlaw! Besides this the export of 

250 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

materials, the elucidation of methods, and the sale 
of finished articles outside the Republic, were crimes 
visited by heavy fines and imprisonment. 

The Gastaldi or Masters of the Guild laid their 
complaints before their patroness, Dogaressa Alicia, 
and she was instrumental in obtaining the removal 
of certain restrictions, and, through her influence, in 
1550, a party of Murano glass-blowers were per- 
mitted to travel to England, Flanders, Spain and 
France. King Henry VIII. cordially welcomed 
them in London, and assigned them suitable 
quarters where they might instruct native workmen. 
The King moreover formed a remarkable collection 
of masterpieces of Murano glass-ware. 

There was a quaint saying in Murano : — '* The 
first woman was made of Murano glass — beautiful 
and brittle ! " 



251 



CHAPTER VII 



The Doge and Dogaressa of the Fisher folk ! 

If imitation be the sincerest form of flattery, then 
must the Most Serene Doges and Dogaressas of 
Venice, during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, 
have experienced gratification combined with amuse- 
ment at the spectacle of the mock Court of the 
Zattere. 

The fisherfolk of the parishes, wherein they 
principally resided, San Raffaele, Santa Marta, and 
San Nicolo degli Orfani, and others, were accorded 
the privilege of electing annually a Doge and 
Dogaressa to preside over the affairs of the fishing 
industry. They were chosen by vote and by accla- 
mation, they were accountable to a Council of 
'' Forty," and they had their installation and corona- 
tion ceremonies. They were attended by duly 
appointed officers : the Dogaressa had her attendant 
maids of honour, the Doge his body-guard. At 
functions, — joyous or sad, — they wore official 
costumes, modelled upon those of the Doge and 
Dogaressa at the Ducal Palace — robes of State, the 
Corno and the regalia. 

Upon the Election of a Doge of the Republic, 
the Fisher Doge and Dogaressa proceeded in mock 
State to the Palace to offer the congratulations of the 
fisher community, and then they went on to the 
Palace of the Dogaressa to salute her Serenity. 

252 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Each Ascension Day — ''La Sensa'' — the Head of 
the State and his Consort entertained the fisher folk 
generally at collation, and the subsequent proceed- 
ings partook of the character of a saturnalia, — full 
license being granted by the Signori delta Notte, or 
police, but no one was at all the worse for their 
conviviality. 

There was no little stir in official circles, when, 
in 1557, the Council of "Forty" determined that, 
after being in abeyance nearly eighty years, the 
ceremonials of Entry and Coronation should be 
revived in honour of Signora Zilia Dandolo-Priuli. 
Two generations of Venetians had come and gone 
and had not beheld the most striking of all Venetian 
pageants. To be sure they had not been without 
gorgeous processions and bountiful festivals ; the 
twelve annual Andate of the Doge and the Lords of 
the Council had been scrupulously carried out under 
each succeeding Head of the State ; but demonstra- 
tions of magisterial dignity and military pomp are 
very poor equivalents for feasts of grace and beauty, 
love and chastity. 

The Election of Messir Lorenzo Priuli to the 
Ducal throne, in 1556, was in a very great measure 
due to the attractive personality and ancestral 
dignity of his Consort. She was acknowledged to 
be the most distinguished noblewoman in Venice. 
Daughter of Messir Marco Dandolo, in direct 
descent from Doge Andrea Dandolo, and with the 
blood of the hero Doge Arrigo Dandolo coursing 
through her veins, she was in the best and truest 
sense a virago. Her marriage took place in 1526, 
but was as a matter of rank, a mesalliance^ for the 

253 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Priull were one of the latest ennobled families, — 
dating their title only from 1450. 

The Palazzo Priuli, upon the Fondamento dell' 
Osmarin, was in its day one of the most magnificent 
in Venice, being entirely faced with superb frescoes 
by Palma Vecchio — alas they have all perished. 
Another Priuli palace belonged to Messir Girolamo 
Priuli, Procurator of San Marco, and brother of the 
new Doge : it was situated on the opposite riva of 
the Grand Canal, near the church of San Barnaba. 
A third Palazzo Priuli, or perhaps Casa Priuli, existed 
in the Cannaregio, a sestiere with its distinctive 
customs, peculiar physiognomy of its people and its 
special dialect. Built in 1520 by Messir Agnello 
Priuli youngest brother of the Doge, who married 
in 1 5 17 Donna Andreiana Venier, daughter of 
Messir Francesco Venier, a two years' Doge in 
1 554-1 556, it was famous for its orchards and its 
great shady trees — the rendezvous of many a gay 
company under Dogaressa Zilia's patronage. 

The preparation for the Dogaressas solemn 
Entry and Coronation were on a very elaborate scale. 
The '' Bucintoro,'' which had borne no bevy of 
Venetian beauties for well-nigh one hundred years, 
was overhauled and covered with gold and blazonry. 
The Trade -Guilds — the Fragilie — were hard at 
work with new costumes, new banners, and new 
gifts for her Serenity. The clergy carefully recen- 
sioned their office-books and looked out their richest 
vestments. Music-masters and chorus-leaders fur- 
bished up their instruments, wrote festal marches, 
and rehearsed odes of welcome. The companies of 
La Calza gave busy work to all the Trades for new 
festal garbs. The dignified Lords themselves 

254 






I? ^ 









I. II. 

(I) DOGARESSA ZILIA DANDOLO-PRIULI, 1557. 

(II) „ LOREDANA MARCELLO-MOCENIGO, 1570. 

FROM "I.IBRO DE' CERIMONIx^LI." 
(Archivio del Stato di Venezia). 




I. II. 

(I) DOGARESSA ZILIA DANDOLO-PRIULI, 1559. 

(II) „ CECILIA CONTARINI-VENIER, 1578. 

(In Mourning Attire). 
FROM LIBRO DF/ CERIMONIAI.I. 

(Archivio del Stato di Venezia). 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

needed new robes, their consorts new dresses. 
Venice was alive with craftsmen and craftswomen, 
for the time was short, and very much to do. 

Although the Election of Doge Francesco Priuli 
was effected late in the year 1556, the solemn Entry 
of the Dogaressa did not take place until the autumn 
of the year following. The reason for this unusual 
delay we need not canvass but assign it to the want 
of preparedness for the revival of a long disused 
observance. 

On the i8th of September 1557, the "Forty," 
the ''Ten," and fifty other nobles, assembled in 
the Sala d'Udienza del Doge, to inaugurate the 
solemnity. They despatched Cavaliere Giovanni 
Cappello, — the father of his Serenity's son-in-law 
Andrea Cappello, — habited in a magnificent costume 
of richest red damask cloth of gold, stiff as herald's 
tabard, with a distinguished and splendidly appointed 
suite to welcome in their name, in the Piazza, the 
ambassadors of the Emperor and of the Dukes of 
Savoy and Urbino. Passing under a triumphal 
arch erected near the public slaughter-houses, by 
the Guild of Butchers, the procession advanced to 
the quay of the Piazzetta and there embarked upon 
the gala-decked '' BMcintoroT A short cruise took 
the party, at the landing-steps of the palace of 
Messir Girolamo Priuli, which was hung from top 
to bottom with draperies of silk and cloth of gold, 
to pay their respects to her Serenity. 

Dogaressa Zilia awaited her distinguished visi- 
tors at the entrance of the palace, accompanied by 
one hundred young noblewomen and attended by 
the Officers of State. She wore the full robes of 
her rank, her veil was of the finest white net of 

255 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Candia, her chemisette and the edging of her great 
ermine sleeves were of the richest Burano lace, her 
Corno was of crimson velvet with a jewelled bandeau, 
and shoes of velvet, to match her head-dress, com- 
pleted her costume. The jewels she wore were the 
most gorgeous owned by any gentlewoman in 
Venice, heirlooms in the Dandolo family, and taken 
from the Sultan's treasury by Doge Arrigo Dandolo 
at the capture of Constantinople, — they were bar- 
baric in magnificence. 

Very graciously the Dogaressa bowed her 
acknowledgments of the reverential greeting of 
visitors, and, when the Cavaliere offered her the 
Promissione of her Consort, she assented to the 
clauses affecting herself, and thereafter bestowed 
upon each member of the deputation a richly 
embroidered purse of cloth of gold containing ten 
golden ducats. Then, seated in tribunes erected 
along the riva, the noble company witnessed a 
regatta of fisolere — long and narrow unprowed 
gondolas. This popular feature in the day's pro- 
ceedings was followed by a gorgeous water-pageant, 
undertaken by the Fragilie, the Compagnie della 
Calza, and other notable organisations. 

Fourteen galleys, almost as big as the '' Bucin- 
toro" belonging to the great Guild of Goldsmiths, 
covered with crimson damask and gold lace, led 
the way. The Canal was a mass of moving craft of 
every sort and size, full of merrymakers, and bands 
of music, space being riskily found for the bulky 
'' Bucintoro " to steer her course with the Dogaressa 
seated on the Ducal throne at the prow, her gallant 
and beautiful Court around her. Salvoes of 
artillery, clangings of bells, soundings of horns and 

256 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

trumpets, and the clamour of the spectators accom- 
panied the Progress to the Piazzetta. At the 
Butchers' triumphal arch two hundred and fifty 
young girls of the city welcomed her Serenity. 
They were arrayed in crimson satin, green silk 
damask and white taffetas, and were adorned with 
magnificent jewels which had not been displayed in 
public for well-nigh one hundred years. Many wore 
great pearls, the biggest ever seen in Venice, — and 
gold chains of cunning workmanship with numerous 
rubies, emeralds, and sapphires : upon their heads 
were diamond coronets and lace veils spangled with 
brilliants. In this constellation of grace, beauty, 
and affluence, was a striking group of twelve 
brides, — recalling to everyone the romantic Venetian 
story of the past. Their golden hair, falling at will 
over their bare and painted shoulders, was restrained 
only by coronets of gold and silver leaves of myrtle : 
their costumes were of white satin and lace with 
golden girdles worn a la Grecqiie. Behind the 
brides were ranged two-and-twenty older matrons, 
clothed in black velvet, and covered with precious 
stones. This feature in the reception must have 
been arranged by a scenic painter or a master of 
costumes, for nothing so well tones masses of strong 
and vivid colours as here and there a sable touch. 

The procession thus doubled in numbers, passed 
superlatively between the hundred German guards 
in the service of the Republic, making for the 
Basilica. Immediately before the Dogaressa came 
the wives of the Procurators of Saint Mark, with 
Madonna Marina, the wife of Messir Vettor 
Grimani at their head, all robed in black satin w4th 
long hanging scarves like those of the Dogaressas 
R 257 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

State robe. Attended by the Secretaries of the 
Hiorh Chancellor marched the Dog-e's two sons-in- 
law, — Cavalieri Antonio Morosini and Pietro 
Cappello, — supporting Cavaliere Giovanni Priuli, 
their Serenities' only Son, all vested in Ducal 
dress, — tabards of emblazoned cloth of gold, with 
trains or long togas of crimson silk velvet, worn 
over silver-crilt suits of armour. 

iMost becomingly costumed in richest silver 
damasked white silk velvet walked the Doge's two 
dauo^hters Madonne Antonio JMorosini and Pietro 
Cappello followed by Cavaliere Matteo Dandolo, 
brother of the Dogaressa, in full Ducal robes, who 
immediately preceded her Serenity. He was 
attended by two Councillors of the Doge, — iNIessiri 
Antonio Giustiniani and Marco Centanni. Under 
the State Umbrella of cloth of gold, with erect 
figure and stately carriage, passed along the new 
First Lady of Venice, — conscious that, in her person, 
was revived the most gorgeous of all the noble 
''Triumphs" of Venice. The historic splendours 
of all the crowned Dogaressas of the past w^ere 
centred in her, and men and women thanked God 
that the gflories of Venice were once more dazzlino- 
their eyes, and making promise for their children. 

The three pages of honour, who bore the Ducal 
train and held the heavy sleeves of fur and gold, 
paused before the Grand Portal of San Marco, and 
the Lords of the Council and State officials orathered 
around the Dogaressa and her children and relatives 
to keep back the pressure of the enthusiastic crowd. 
The Chapter of the cathedral were awaiting Her 
Serenity and the Prior at once sprinkled her with 
Holy Water, the acolytes holding aloft great lighted 

258 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

candles, and tossing big silver censers in the air. 
The Dogaressa humbly knelt to kiss a holy relic 
of Saint Mark whilst the choristers and musicians 
gave forth joyous anthems. Conducted by the 
ecclesiastics into the choir the Prior seated her 
upon the Doge's throne and then ** Te Deum," 
was chanted. To each canon Dogaressa Zilia 
gave a purse of cloth of gold with one hundred 
gold ducats. The ritual of the Entry was cele- 
brated as in the days of Dogaressa Regina 
Gradenigo-Vendramin. Upon the sacred Missal, 
held by the Bishop of Castello, the new Dogaressa 
swore to observe her Promissione. Several ad- 
dresses were read to her, but nobody could hear 
a word because of the tremendous vociferations of 
the applauding multitude inside and outside the 
sacred edifice. 

Bowing reverently to the High Altar Dogaressa 
Zilia passed through the Sanctuary and ascended 
the Foscara staircase, on her way to the Ducal 
Palace. As in days gone by, the Guilds made 
lavish displays in each room of delectable dainties for 
the palate and of supreme examples of their re- 
spective craftsmanship. The hairdressers were the 
first to offer their duty, being specially under the 
new Dogaressas patronage. They had spread a 
table with a very beautiful Oriental carpet and 
placed upon it a resplendent crystal mirror of 
Murano with the golden appurtenances of the 
toilet — splendid gifts for her Serenity. Possibly 
they warily foresaw the need of a new dressing of 
the Most Serene locks of auburn hair after the 
trying formalities already graciously performed ! 
The Gastaldo, or Master of the Guild, advancing 

259 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

with many reverences addressed the Dogaressa : 
'' Right welcome is Your Serenity, we hairdressers 
are your devoted servants, we rejoice with you, and 
beg you still to extend to us your Serene patronage." 
Then, with a motion of the hand he invited her to 
partake of the delicacies and to quaff the rare vintage 
on silver dishes and out of crystal flagons, which 
His Serenity the Doge had provided for the use of 
all the Guilds. 

The Dogaressa graciously replied : — '* I am 
delighted that everything is so well arranged and 
I thank you heartily. I am not able to stay with 
you because I have to visit seventeen other rooms. 
I hope to see you all another time, I must now say 
farewell." 

Entering the room allotted to the Guild of 
Goldsmiths, her Serenity was saluted in a similar 
manner, and offered two splendid panels of tapestry, 
mounted in exquisitely carved frames overlaid with 
gold and silver. Passing through a corridor, which 
gave upon the Piazza, she beheld the immense 
awning of light blue canvas covered with golden 
stars, which stretched away to the four columns in 
front of the offices of the Signori delta Notte al 
Criminally which were draped in crimson damask 
and carried six-and-twenty emblazoned shields, and 
every window festooned and decorated with the 
Dandolo arms. As she went on her way the massed 
bands of the Guilds, in the Piazzetta, played a 
triumphal march. Each of the sixteen rooms was 
adorned by a separate Guild, and each Guild made 
a distinctive offering, saluting her Serenity with 
loyal devotion. In the last room the Officers of the 
Murano glass-workers were in charge of a rare 

260 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

exhibition of the lustrous objects of their craft. 
The offering of this ancient and noble Guild was 
a suite of glass new in style, shape and colour and 
jewelled, — chefs doeuvre of the most fragile art of 
Venice. In honour of the new Dogaressa quite 
naturally the service was called '' La Zilia." 

At length this very agreeable but very tiring 
Progress ended at the Sala del Gran Consiglio, 
where Dogaressa Zilia was placed upon the Ducal 
throne, having on her right the older ladies of her 
escort, the State Councillors, the Heads of the 
"Forty," her brother, Cavaliere Matteo Dandolo 
and the Cavalieri Antonio Morosini and Pietro 
Cappello. The nobles and gentlemen all were in 
crimson satin having removed their heavy tabards 
of cloth of gold ; they wore stoles of cloth of 
gold over their left shoulders. Upon benches 
opposite were seated ambassadors, judges, knights, 
members of the Council, and the more distinguished 
guests of the Government. The younger gentle- 
women of the Dogaressas suite were upon her left 
hand, and with them an equal number of young 
nobles, — Companions of La Caha and young 
officers of the fleet and army. The ducal Corno 
was held over her head by the High Chancellor, 
who addressed her in the same terms as those used 
at the Coronation of Dogaressa Regina Gradenigo- 
Vendramin. 

Shades of evening were falling on the golden 
glory of a glorious festal day, as, by magic, torches 
burning coloured fires were kindled in every window 
of the Palace, — every Sala was lighted al giorno. 
Then defiled before the Serene Dogaressa in the 
Grand Courtyard a pageant of the Arts and Crafts, 

261 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

every member thereof bearing a lighted torch. In 
the van marched two by two, one hundred of the 
handsomest young gallants of Venice, — all tightly 
costumed in silks and satins, — and twenty-five 
gentlemen of the Doge's private cabinet, — wearing 
long togas of black velvet and heavy gold chains of 
office. 

Collations were spread in the cortili of the 
Palace, and banquets were given in the Council 
chambers, and then, in the Piazzetta, were athletic 
exhibitions of posed human pyramids and other 
figures, and a grand display of fireworks. The 
festivities wound up with dance and music, games 
and flirtations, till the new day began to peep 
through window and doorway as the pale moon 
withdrew her light before the fiery car of the 
advancing Sun God. 

The festival of the Coronation was carried over 
three days, days of unalloyed pleasure and success. 
Bull-baiting, bear-baiting, cock-fighting, boxing, 
wrestling, skiff-races, swimming matches, well filled 
twenty-four hours, and then followed dramatic per- 
formances by members of La Calza. Venice was 
in a delirium of music, dancing, and general rejoicing. 
Rich and poor alike were feasted by the munificent 
Doge and Dogaressa, and, when on the last day 
of the festival, they made a round of visits to 
thank the Masters of the Guilds and others who 
had been conspicuous by their services in general, 
every one felt that rest was welcome, and that life 
might again return to its normal conditions. 

The " Triumph " of Dogaressa Zilia Dandolo- 
Priuli marked a red letter in the annals of the 
Republic. It was taken as a proof that the spirit 

262 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

of the Venetians was by no means dead, but, at 
the same time, it served as a warning of the 
enervating effect of wanton enjoyment and leisured 
opulence. A poet-laureate arose, unknown now 
by name, who thus apostrophised the happy Signora 
Zllla : — 

" Quae decus setherum, terrarum gloria tandem 
Zilia progreditur, patuit Dea, vertice odorem 
Spiravere comae divinum, vestis ad imos 
De fluxitque pedes . . ." 

The reign of Lorenzo and Zilia Priuli was, for 
the most part, peaceful, so far as the intermlttence 
of sporadic hostilities was concerned. To be sure 
the Turks never let the Venetians quite alone, and 
Venice kept on quietly pushing diplomatic aggression 
everywhere. Still the hindrances to home develop- 
ment were not unduly harmful and industry and 
commerce throve exceedingly. The Dogaressa, 
good as her word, spoken after her Coronation — 
"I hope to see you all another time" — extended 
her heartiest patronage to the Trades which most 
appealed to her in matters of taste, and she fostered 
new fashions in upholstery, napery, and table ap- 
pointments, as well as personal adornments. 

Alas, her wearing of the Corno was limited to 
three short years, for, in 1559, Doge Priuli was 
laid upon his deathbed, — another victim to pesti- 
lence. He was buried at San Salvatore, under 
the statue of his patron Saint Lorenzo. The 
Council paid unusual honours to the widowed 
Dogaressa, a decree, dated 24th June, immediately 
after the burial of her Consort, appointed her a 
household of eight maids of honour, and servitors 
for her sedan, and her gondola. She was to be 

263 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

attended in her visits to churches, hospitals and 
other institutions, by four elderly gentlewomen of 
distinction, and she was required to wear in 
public black satin brocade cut after the pattern of 
the cloth of gold State robes but without jewels. 
These instructions were to serve as the decree stated 
''per maggior decor o et honor de la Republica,'' and 
the dowager Dogaressa was accorded the title of 
** Princess." Furthermore a monthly allowance was 
granted her of fifty gold ducats, and the super- 
vision of her affairs was delegated to the State 
Chamberlains. 

The '' Libro dei Cerimonialiy" still preserved 
among the Archives of the Republic, has a repre- 
sentation of Dogaressa Zilia Dandolo-Priuli in the 
costume of a widow. The dress is apparently of 
black cashmere, with full deep sleeves of black silk. 
Her widowhood lasted seven years, and she died 
regretted by all on 13th October 1566. Her funeral 
obsequies were conducted upon a scale commen- 
surate with the unusual honours bestowed upon her 
in her lifetime. After the excision of the bowels 
and brain, — which were placed in a marble vase, — 
her body was ''washed," says the writer of the 
" CerimonialV "in pure spring water, and wrapped 
in tow, with sponges under the armpits." Em- 
balmed with aromatic wax and spices, the dead 
Princess was shrouded in the habit of a nun of 
the Convent of Sant' Alvise, of the foundation of 
Donna Antonia Venier in 1388 : over it was cast 
a chemise of cloth of gold, and a delicate lace veil 
shaded the face arranged under a Ducal Corno. 

The lying-in-state was upon a bier in the Sala 
dei Pioveghi. During three days the Papal Legate, 

264 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

the Ambassadors, the Lords of the Councils, the 
Captains of the ''Forty" and of the **Ten," the 
Procurators, Judges, and all the Officers of State 
with the clergy and religious orders, the Religious 
congregations, the inmates of the State Orphanages 
and Homes for Women, and a vast concourse of 
citizens passed before the coffin. On the last day 
the Doge Girolamo Priuli, — his brother's successor, 
— in full State ascended the Scala cCOro accom- 
panied by the Papal Legate and Cavaliere Giovanni 
Priuli, — the son of the late Doge and Dogaressa, — 
and entered the funeral chapel to assist at the final 
ceremonial. 

A procession of the Prior and Chapter of San 
Marco with cross, banners, and lighted yellow wax 
torches, accompanied by the clergy of the church of 
San Fantino, — usually attended by the late Dogar- 
essa, — and her private chaplains, filed into the Sala, 
and, after prayers and absolution, the coffin was 
raised upon the shoulders of master-marines of the 
Arsenal, borne down the Scala de Giganti, and 
carried solemnly across the Piazzetta to the portal 
of the Basilica, where the remains were blessed by 
the Bishop of Castello. The funeral cortege then 
advanced between military guards through the 
Piazza and Merceria to the Ponte d'Olio, and so 
on to the great church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo. 
All the calli were covered with black hangings, and 
every man, woman, and child was in deepest mourn- 
ing. Within the church the coffin was placed upon 
an imposing catafalque, and surrounded with torches 
and candles. Conducted to his Chair of State the 
Doge laid aside his Corno, whilst the priest of the 
Collegiate Church of San Fantino delivered an 

265 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

impressive oration, ending with the apostrophiza- 
tion : — ''Jam vero ZilicB virtuti qucE potest per 
07^atio inveniri ? " 

Such an imposing ceremonial at the burial of 
a widowed Dogaressa was unprecedented. Zilia 
Dandolo-Priuli came to her throne in the grand 
Ducal Palace and to her grave in, the simple church 
of San Salvatore in a couple of '' Triumphs " unique 
of their kind. 



II 



The dogado of Lorenzo Priuli was conspicuous 
only so far as it was adorned by the personality of 
a wealthy, talented, and fascinating wife. Had the 
reign of his brother Girolamo Priuli, his immediate 
successor, been graced by the presence of as illustri- 
ous a consort, certainly history would have recorded 
her charms, her influence, and her example. Alas, 
we know nothing about Signora Elena Diedo-Priuli 
beyond her name : the date of her birth, marriage, 
and death are unnoted, nor do we find any reference 
to her family, her forebears, or her offspring. 

One of the most ornamental and useful bridges 
in Venice is the Ponte Diedo, where on 3rd October 
1607, Fra Paolo Sarpi, theologian, lawyer and 
patriot was done to death. The nomenclature of 
another bridge, in the same sestiere Cannaregio — 
the Ponte Priuli, may suggest that the Priuli and 
Diedi were neighbours and probably engaged in the 
same industry. 

The Priuli were among the noble families of 
1450, and possibly the Diedi were patrician citizens 

266 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

not yet ennobled. Doge Girolamo Priuli occupied 
the Ducal throne eight years, during which episodes 
and events were few. Strenuous periods of national 
history have their reflex action in times of rest and 
recuperation. Venice was quiescent, her enemies 
left her pretty much alone, and internal troubles 
appeared to be exhausted. The burial of the Doge 
in 1567 was conducted at the church of San 
Salvatore : he was laid alongside his brother Doge 
Lorenzo, in the family vault, beneath the statue of 
his patron saint, San Girolamo. 

Pietro Loredano wore the Corno for three years, 
1 567- 1 570: his Consort was Madonna Maria Cap- 
pello. Probably he was a son of '' Grand " Doge 
Lionardo Loredano, and she was the daughter of a 
noble family which had given very many famous 
sons to Venice, although not one of them reached the 
throne. Two events marked this dogado, — both 
calamitous, — the terrible famine of 1569, when the 
harvest of all northern Italy and the contiguous 
countries entirely failed, and the destruction by fire 
of the famous Arsenal, the fountain-head of the 
whole naval and military system of the Republic. 

The annals of Venice are blank what time 
Dogaressas Elena Diedo-Priuli and Maria Cappello- 
Loredano held their State within the Ducal Palace. 
The Republic was at peace, dormant and self- 
indulgent, — an unwonted experience for her once 
vigorous, aggressive, and victorious citizens. The 
end of the war with the Turks left her free to enjoy 
to the full her love of leisure and her fondness of 
festivity. The still evening of an eventful life 
was the twilight of her fame : her sun was near 
the setting, yet, ere she laid herself down no 

267 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

more to rise, expiring flashes of brilliant deeds and 
dying fires of fearsome catastrophes illuminated her 
political horizon. 

The succession of Doge Alvise Mocenigo and 
Dogaressa Loredana Marcello- Mocenigo, in 1570, 
found Venice plunged in a sea of anxieties and 
perils. Incessant warfare, with defeats counteract- 
ing victories, produced solicitude and stupefaction 
which were subversive of all thoughts and sentiments 
of festivity. " Venus Calva,'' once more was the 
figure the ** Queen of the Adriatic," bereft of all 
consolation, presented to an unfriendly world. The 
Doge's election, of course, was conducted with the 
traditional solemnities, but the Dogaressa was denied 
the honour of a solemn Entry and Coronation : 
Pageants were out of the question in such anxious 
circumstances. 

The Doge was the fourth member of his family, 
— ennobled in 1289, — to wear the golden Corno : 
he belonged to the San Samuele branch of the 
Mocenighi, — the " Casa Vecchia " as it was called, 
resident in that campo. A man of great strength of 
character, extremely charitable, and renowned for 
urbanity and conscientiousness, and truly he needed 
all these qualities in the upkeep of his dignity, and 
in the encouragement of his people. The Dogaressa 
was Loredana, daughter of Messir Giovanni Alvise 
Marcello, — a man of wealth and of a Ducal family, 
his ancester. Doge Nicolo Marcello had occupied 
the supreme office just one hundred years before. 
She was married in 1533. 

Dogaressa Loredana was a woman as handsome 
and virtuous as she was talented and accomplished. 
As a writer of letters and as a classical scholar, she 

268 




DOGARESSA LOREDANA MARCELLO-MOCENIGO. 

FROM A COLOURED PRINT. 

"Famiglie Celebri."— P. G. Litta. 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

had few equals in Venice. With her sisters, Donne 
Bianca, Daria, and Marina, she led not only the 
wits of the women of Venice, but also their tastes 
and their modes — '' fiore del secolo'' they and their 
likes were called. Women had only very gradually 
and intermittingly achieved prominence in literary 
and artistic circles, but the end of the sixteenth 
century witnessed the rich blossoming of the New 
Women, for almost 'every '' gentildonna di Venezia'' 
was distinguished for her mental attainments as well 
as for her charms of person. 

Dogaressa Loredana had at least one hobby, — 
botanical research. The Villa gardens of Venice and 
on the Brenta contained rare examples of plant life, 
the flower gardens of the convents, and the physic 
gardens of the monasteries had their unique 
treasures, but the fair botanist had other nurseries 
whence she obtained the objects of her devotion. 
Venetian agents in every port ministered to her 
passion, and the gardens of the Marcello Palace 
were filled with exotics. Alas, that her analyses 
and studies of plants and their properties have been 
lost, along with her letters, her translations, and her 
poems. The Dogaressa's botanical researches how- 
ever were not merely for personal gratification, they 
were of immense value to the faculty of medicine ; 
her formulas and recipes were invaluable during the 
grievous visitations of plague which decimated the 
population soon after her death. 

Short, sad to say, was the reign of the cultured 
and charming Dogaressa, she died of plague on 
1 2th December 1572, but testimony of her virtues 
has been preserved in Messir Ottaviano Maggi's 
'' Oratio in funeralibus Laurace Moccenicce,'' a 

269 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Latin panegyric pronounced at her funeral, which 
concludes with the ascription : — Tu vero Lauredana 
matrona integerrima converte aliquando oculos in 
ha7ic rempublicam.'''' F3.l3.zzi also, in his "La 
Virtu,'' extols the dead Signora : that famous pack 
of Playing-Cards at the Museo Civico has upon 
the " Knave of Cups " : — '' Loredana Marcello- 
Mocenigo, was a Princess of great attainments, 
wherefore the painter finds it difficult to illustrate 
her virtues, Nobility rather than wealth is the 
distinction of Queens." He calls her : — '' Giantessa 
di merit I " 

Amaden in the '' Archivio privato de MarcellV 
also recounts the praises of Dogaressa Loredana : 
— ** She was remarkable for her constancy, both in 
the experiences of adversity and in the distractions 
of prosperity, judicious and discreet in the super- 
vision of her household, reverent and charitable 
in her church duties, benevolent to her relatives 
and to her dependants, in a word, she was a most 
virtuous and noble Princess." 

Her obsequies were duly celebrated, though 
shorn of much of the usual State pageantry, in the 
Church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo. Her lying-in- 
state was arranged in the Sala de Pioveghi ; where, 
simply shrouded in the habit of a nun of the Con- 
vento della Croce on the Giudecca, with the cowl : 
the embalmed body was wrapped in a great mantle 
of cloth of gold lined with lynx fur. Over the nun's 
black fall was cast a rich veil of white silk edged 
with gold which covered the shoulders. Her head 
rested upon a cushion of cloth of gold, but it bore 
no Corno for the Dogaressa had not been crowned. 
A long stole of white silk ornamented with gold 

270 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

lace descended from her neck to her feet which 
were encased in the finest white silken hose and 
white kid shoes embroidered with gold. 

The pall was of white silk brocade covered with 
gold embroideries, all the mourners wore purple, 
except the Vice- Doge and the foreign ambassadors. 
The Papal Nuncio and Cavaliere Giovanni Moce- 
nigo, the Doge's brother, were the principal pall- 
bearers. In all respects the funeral rites followed 
the ritual of that of Dogaressa Zilia Dandolo-Priuli. 
So highly had she been esteemed by all classes of 
the community, that, during six days, a constant 
stream of people — chiefly poor — passed before the 
dead Dogaressas grandiose bier. Doge Alvise be- 
stowed munificent alms upon these needy admirers 
of his lamented Consort. The last '^Requiem'' was 
celebrated in the presence of the Doge, merely 
habited as a noble and without special ceremony, 
who then assisted in the entombment within the 
massive monument next the great portal of the 
Venetian Pantheon. 

It was perhaps a misfortune for Venice that the 
virtuous Dogaressa died when she did, for, had she 
lived but two short years or more, she might have 
exerted a moderating influence upon the profligacy 
of the nobles and citizens, who hailed with so much 
enthusiasm the visit of King Henry III. of Poland 
and France. No Royal visitor, in the whole history 
of the Republic, had ever been entertained with 
such a lavish display of magnificence and such 
unbounded prodigality. Everybody put on the 
most splendid gala costume, and all Venice was 
decked with the most gorgeous of festival tokens. 

Henry found himself the object of universal 
271 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

homage, and, amorous prince that he was, he 
dallied delightedly in the sunshine of unrestrained 
enjoyment. Venice was full of courtesans of the 
boldest and most fascinating seductiveness. 
Sprightly, vivacious, and accomplished, they were 
endowed with the most captivating and coaxing 
ways. They hovered around their Royal guest, 
most superbly dressed, — or if you will the reverse, 
— bedizened with flashing jewels, their golden hair 
more resplendent than their robes of cloth of gold 
and chains of gold and pearls, was coiffured with 
subtle artifice. Their breasts were bare, supported 
by broad bands or belts of gold with screws 
arranged to tighten them at will. 

The nuns in the convents were as gay and as 
approachable as were the glittering women of the 
Piazza; their ''parlours" were the rendezvous of 
gallants, — young and old. All Venice went as mad 
as in the time of Carnival, and no voice was raised 
in Church or Council to restrain the infatuation. 
Every sort of entertainment was offered Henry 
and his suite of three hundred greedy courtiers. 
His body-guard was formed by thirty of the best- 
looking, best-dressed, and gayest young nobles. 
There were jousts, regattas, ridotti, masked balls, 
banquets, and theatricals galore. Bevies of beauti- 
ful maidens, in silken tissue, like nymphs in a 
moonlit glade, scattered flowers in the King's way, 
and displayed their charms, unmoved by the 
curiosity of the bold French knights-errant. 

Amid all the feverish frenzy of these demonstra- 
tions one pair of eyes fastened their mesmeric glare 
upon these of the happy monarch with peculiar 
significance, and he yielded unresistingly to the 

272 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

fascination. Veronica Franco, — ''the Aspasia of 
Venice," — was the centre of a brilliant but debon- 
naire literary and artistic circle. Born In 1546, in 
the parish of Sant' Agnese, she was in the full bud 
of her virginity. She, like her frail sisters, was as. 
they have been aptly described, " made up of three 
things — wood, clothes and breasts," — their high 
pattens, their tightly clinging silk tissues, and their 
paints and puffs. 

The amours of Henry and Veronica were sung 
by poets and philosophers, painters painted her on 
canvas and In miniature, and she herself made 
poems as full of love as were the whispers of her 
lover. Her awakening was sudden and effectual. 
After Henry had taken her love and kisses away 
with him to Paris, she renounced the reckless life 
of a courtesan and became the inspiring Venetian 
Sappho. Then she turned to religion and tried to 
undo the evils of the past by good works and the 
founding a penitentiary for fallen women. Michael 
Montaigne, who saw her at Santa Maria Formosa, 
tells us all this and more about her in his 
"Journal." 

"She gave me," he says, "a book — ' Lettere 
Famigliarie Diverse,' — erotic and ascetic, — which 
she had dedicated to another of her admirers, the 
Cardinal Luigl d'Este." " I saw also in Venice," 
he adds, "one hundred and fifty noblewomen 
courtesans who were kept in the greatest luxury, 
spending money like Princesses in jewels, dresses, 
portraits, cosmetiques, and personal adornments." 
The resplendent and repentant Veronica died in 
1 59 1, not more than forty-five years of age, worn 
out with enervating pleasures and austere penances : 
s 273 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

her heart the while being yielded a captive to the 
King of France. The love of a Venetian woman 
was fierce and all-absorbing in its intensity, and 
Sanguinacci's poem — '' Le Donne di Venegia''' 
exactly gives the measure of their pulse : — 

" Con atti adomi, assai politi e belle 

Le Donne vedi andar con tal maniera 
E con la fresca Ziera 

Che '1 par, che le vigna del Paradiso." 

What the worthy Doge thought about all this 
wantonness he never divulged : his life was over- 
shadowed by an irreparable sorrow — some say he 
never smiled after gentle Dogaressa Loredana 
closed her eyes in death. 

The dogado of Alvise Mocenigo was marked by 
public grief as well as private sorrow. The loss of 
Cyprus and the battle of Lepanto made many a 
casa fatherless, where mothers and children wept for 
those they would see no more. Three years after 
the death of good Dogaressa Loredana, Venice was 
visited by a terrible calamity : forty thousand of the 
inhabitants were struck down by pestilence. Death 
came upon them with gaunt giant strides : men left 
home for the day's work and duty well and hearty, 
before the curfew sounded they were repulsive 
corpses. Lords of the Council fell in the Council 
Chamber, words of wisdom dying on their dying 
lips. One quarter of the population was wiped out. 

Doge Mocenigo displayed, as might have been 
expected, heroic courage. His self-denial and 
absolute disregard of personal risk found him com- 
forting the dying and consoling the sorrowing : he 
was nurse, priest, and guardian to the poorest of the 

274 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

poor. What would not Signora Loredana have 
given to share her consort's ministry ! His piety 
took the shape of the foundation of the splendid 
church of II Redentore, built by the great architect 
Palladio, — his master-piece, — to propitiate the Deity 
and to serve as a thank-offering for the cessation 
of the plague. 

Five years of widowerhood ended for the Doge 
in 1577, and then his embalmed body was laid 
beside that of his Consort in SS. Giovanni e Paolo. 
A clause of his will proves his life's devotion to her. 
Property at Villabona, which he had intended 
should be hers if he predeceased her, he left to his 
eldest niece, on condition that she and her daughter 
after her, took the names Loredana Marcello before 
their surname Mocenigo. 



Ill 

A Hero Doge ! 

Still green were the laurels which enwreathed 
the noble brow of Sebastiano Venier, — gracious 
emblems of the triumph of Lepanto, where his 
strategy, more than anything else, had won a 
famous victory. Acclaimed Doge by the tumultuous 
voice of the people in the Piazza, as well as by the 
unanimous suffrages of the " Forty " in the Council 
Chamber, Venier aroused the latent warlike spirit of 
all Venetians. Venice was herself again, — no 
longer '' Venus Calva!' The lion of San Marco 
once more bristled his hoary mane, and all the 
gallants of La Calza strutted up and down, — their 
effeminate costumes exchanged for the bravery of 

275 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

martial uniform, — the cynosure of admiring matrons 
and blushing maidens. 

'' The Hero of Lepanto " was no youthful soldier 
breathing lustily the battle-smoke but an aged 
warrior of fourscore years and more — one more 
exponent of the vigour of old age so characteristic 
of \'enetian manhood. He wiped out the disgrace 
of Cyprus, for Turkish standards flew proudly from 
the tall flao^staffs before St Mark's. Great was the 
loss of precious lives to Venice — great their glory 
too ! 

A grand Andata. or Progress, swept the Doge 
and Dogaressa within the portals of the Basilica, 
upon the feast of Santa Giustina — the heroine 
patron of the Republic. Four days of religious 
processions and four nights of craft - pageantry- 
kept all Venice in a whirl of enthusiasm such as she 
had not experienced for many a day. Whether 
solemn '* Te Detwt " or hilarious odes to Victor}' held 
the citizens most strongly, it was hard to say. 

Whilst the Spaniards under their princely 
admiral, Don Juan, evinced a spirit of apathy, quite 
unworthy of this military renown, the Pontiff, — the 
other ally of Venice, — crowned the eulog}- of Marco 
xVntonio Colonna, his Chief in Command, by the 
bestowal of the "Golden Rose" upon the noble 
Doge and Dogaressa. Amid all the jubilation and 
marks of high esteem Doge Sebastiano \"enier and 
Doo-aressa Cecilia Contarini-Venier maintained a 
dio-nified bearing and modestly sought the seclusion 
of their palace. There, deputations followed in 
quick succession from friendly States and Cities. 
The Brescian embassy, in particular, came full of 
" gratitude for precious ser^-ices and in token of 

276 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

the devotion and infinite love felt for his Serenity 
by all the citizens of our city." Calling at the Casa 
Venier the envoys were received first of all by the 
Dogaressa without ceremony, who told them that 
the Doge was upstairs in his study and said : — '' I 
much fear he will be unwilling to accept your offer- 
ing but I will go and hear what he says." The 
reply was couched in grateful terms but, whilst he 
was pleased to possess a trifling recognition of his 
small services, he politely declined the costly shield 
of beaten copper, and the case of rare old Brescian 
wine. 

Sebastiano Venier was the third Doge of his 
family, brother of Doge Francesco Venier, 1554- 
1556, — a family ennobled among the thirty by the 
Serrar del Consiglio, in 1289. Dogaressa Cecilia 
belonged to the renowned " Apostolic " family of 
Contarini, and was married in 3rd June 1544, in the 
Church of Santa Maria degl' Angeli at Murano. 
Doge Venier and she were busily engaged in 
working out the order of the ceremonial to be 
observed at the Coronation when he was struck 
down suddenly by paralysis on 3rd March 1578. He 
died within the year of his election, and he was 
buried in the choir of the Church of his Nuptials. 
Sebastiano Venier must be accounted the Twelfth 
"■ Grand " Doge of Venice. 

The Lords of the Council grieved greatly at his 
demise and unanimously agreed to accord to the 
widowed Dogaressa a pension of four hundred gold 
ducats per annum, and made provisions for her 
similar to those bestowed upon Dogaressa Zilia 
Dandolo - Priuli in 1559 — ''in happy memory of 
noble Prince Sebastiano Venier." Her residence, 

277 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

her household, her visits in the City, her gondola, 
and even her dress, were all prescribed by rigid but 
benevolent conventions. In the '' Cerimoniali'' 
(1464- 1 592) are two figures of Dogaressa Cecilia 
Contarlni-Venier, alonor with those of Dog-aressas 
Zilia Dandolo - Priuli and Loredana I\Iarcello- 
Mocenigo, all in full State robes and also in widow's 
weeds. Her death and burial have not been 
recorded. 

Nicolo da Ponte, who succeeded the heroic 
Doge, was cast in quite another kind of mould. 
He was an ecclesiastic in proclivity if not in ordina- 
tion, a theologian of high order and renown, but 
by no means an adherent politically of the Papal 
See. He represented the Republic, along with the 
Patriarch, at the Ecumenical Council of Trent. He 
actually refused to allow the Pope's Nuncio to 
inspect the V^enetian monasteries and affirmed the 
prerogative of the Patriarch of Venice on that 
behalf. The Doge's Consort was Madonna 
Arcangela Canali, but there is nothing to record of 
her or of her family. 

Possibly Doge da Ponte is best remembered by 
the kindly part he played in the romance of be- 
witching Bianca Cappello. Deceived and deserted 
by a good-for-nothing young Florentine banker's 
clerk the young mother became a " Cosa di 
Francesco " — the Grand Duke of Tuscany. For 
years a price was put upon her head, but time is 
fruitful of revenge, and the daughter of proud 
Cavaliere Bartolommeo Cappello, — disowned by 
him, and outlawed by the State, — was, ten years 
later, created "a True and Special Daughter of 
Venice." The Doge wrote as follows to the Grand 

278 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Duke on i6th June 1579: — ''We are thrilled with 
the greatest pleasure . . . when we learn that your 
Highness has chosen such a wife on account of her 
distinguished virtues." 

The Grand Duchess' marriage and Coronation 
were splendidly celebrated in Florence. Doge da 
Ponte was specially represented and the noble 
ambassadors Cavaliere Giovanni Michielo and 
Antonio Tiepolo bestowed upon the Queenly bride, 
in the name of the Council, a costly crown of gold 
and jewels, a rich cincture of solid gold, and a superb 
ruby ring. Venice also gave her ''Daughter" a 
glorious necklace of diamonds, worth ten thousand 
gold ducats. Bianca loved Francesco and no other 
man, and her devotion was returned quite as faith- 
fully. The power she exercised was wholly for his 
good and for the welfare of his sovereignty ; and 
she lives, in unbiassed history, as the inspirer of 
most of the noble works which marked the reign of 
the last " Grand Medici ! " Infatuated, he wrote of 
her :— 

" A shining gem from Heaven's treasury 
Hath Mother Human Nature taken 
And, wrapping it in a silken veil, 
Hath sweetly bestowed it on Florence — 
Saying, — ' To thee, fairest one, I give 
This beauteous Flora, choice gift of value.' " 

Torquato Tasso, her Poet-laureate, celebrated 
her beauty and benignity : — 

" Bianca — the new ' Sun of Florence ' 
Causes all things worthy to be done 
Sun she is — no moon, pale and sad 
Flashing with splendours of Charity." 

The Grand Duchess Bianca Cappello-Medici 
279 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

was the third and last '' Daughter of Venice."' 
That tender title had first been bestowed by the 
Republic upon Donna Ginevra, daughter of Messir 
Matteo Tiepolo, Podesta of Belluno, who was 
married in 1503 to Signore Giovanni Sforza, Lord 
of Pesaro. He died a few months after their 
nuptials and she entered the Convent of San Pietro 
de' Fiorentini. Girl-like she soon wearied of the 
life of the cloister, and, renouncing her vows, she 
once more entered the world of fashion and romance. 
Many a suitor offered her his hand, and heart and 
purse, but she would not be again a wife, and she 
ended her days the inmate of a convent — that of 
San Xicolo di Murano. 

The second "' Daughter of \'enice " was of course 
Donna Caterina Conaro, Queen of Cyprus, Jeru- 
salem and Armenia. Pathos of the deepest was 
blended with the splendour of the role she was 
called upon to play, and with the romance of her 
later days. The daughter of Messir Conaro or 
Corner of the "Evangelistic'' noble family, which 
gave four Doges to Venice, Donna Caterina. in 
1468, was betrothed, when only fourteen years of 
age, to Giacomo di Lusignano, King of Cyprus. 
It was said that he had the pick of fifty eligible 
brides, but chose Donna Caterina Conaro by 
way of paying off the mortgage on his island 
kingdom held by Messir Marco Conaro and 
his partners : a sum of a hundred thousand 
gold ducats was written off as her hypothetic 
dowry. King James died in 1473, the year 
after their marriage, and Queen Caterina bore 
his posthumous son six months later. Rivals for 
the throne fouo;ht for the child and ag^ainst one 

280 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

another, — even in the Queen's bedchamber, — and 
then she was rescued by an expedition from Venice, 
but her babe died in her arms upon the homeward 
voyage. 

Venice seized the kingdom, rendered royal 
honours to her " Daughter," and assigned her a 
palace and a regal maintenance at the Castle of 
Asolo in the Marca Trivigiana. There she reigned 
over a miniature Court of cultured and distinguished 
men and women, where literature and romance 
played many parts. The leader of her revels and 
symposia was Pietro Bembo, who in his '' Gli 
Asolaniy'' discourses after the manner of Giovanni 
Boccaccio of love, pleasure, and philosophy. The 
while he was writing sonnets to his Queen and 
bending his knee in homage he was carrying on a 
liaison with the Princess Lucrezia Borgia, and then 
by her influence he was created a Cardinal, — an 
example of ecclesiastical incontinence. Gentile 
Bellini, in his masterpiece at the Venice Accademia, 
'' The Miracle of the Cross," painted Queen Caterina 
and many of the ladies and gentlemen of her Court. 
The faces are life studies, the costumes regal in 
magnificence. 

Queen Caterina was treated with the utmost 
distinction by all Venetians, and when she died, in 
1 510, her remains were accorded honours similar to 
those rendered to a departed Dogaressa. She was 
first buried in the church of SS. Apostoli and then 
translated, in 1665, to San Salvatore. Over her 
coffin Andrea Navagero pronounced a remark- 
able oration in which he extolled the Queen's 
beauty, grace, and gentleness, her goodness, 
erudition, and constancy. With Pietro Bembo, 

281 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

in one of his delightful Ca7i2one may we sing of 

her : — 

" Non si vedra giammai stanca ne sazia 
Questa mia penna Amore, 
Di renderti, Signore, 
Del tuo cotanto onore alcuna grazia : 
A cui pensando volentier si spazia 
Per la memoria il cuore, 
E vede '1 tuo valore 
Ond 'ci prende vigore e te ringrazia." 

A *' Daughter of Venice " was of course a 
Dogaressa in rank, hence brief stories of the three 
Venetian Queen-Graces, Ginevra, Caterina and 
Bianca, are by no means superfluous in the ''Libra 
cTOro delle Dogaresse di Veneziar 

Three years of unbroken peace followed the 
death of Doge Nicolo da Ponte in 1588, under the 
administration of Doge Pasquale Cicogna. The 
Dogaressa was Madonna Laura INIorosini. He 
was the son of an apothecary, ennobled after the 
Genoese War of Chioggia : she was of an "Apos- 
tolic " family, but nothing is recorded of her. The 
Doge was reckoned as a parsimonious and unsympa- 
thetic sort of man, and was very unpopular with the 
citizens by reason of his niggardliness in the matter 
of larcresse at his election Proofress throuo^h the 
Piazza. Their tomb is at Santa Maria de' Gesuiti, 
where he and his Consort lie side by side peacefully 
sleeping. 



IV 



At the very end of the sixteenth century one more 
resplendent Dogaressa passed through Venice in 
solemn State to her Coronation — Signora Morosina 

282 




DOGARESSA MOROSINA MOROSINI-GRIMANI. 
Giovanni, Contarini. 1599. 

VILLA PIvSANO, YESCOVANA, PADUA. 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Morosini-Grimani. She was a daughter of Messir 
Andrea Morosini, the head of the senior branch of 
the second family in the highest grade of nobility, — 
the *' Apostolic," — members of which grade had 
come to be looked upon not only as merchant- 
princes, but as Princes of the State. She was 
married to Messir Marino Grimani, from her 
fathers house, Palazzo Morosini (now Sangredo), 
upon the Grand Canal, in the no longer existent 
church of San Cristoforo on 27th November 1560. 

The newly-married pair set up housekeeping in 
splendid fashion in the Palazza Grimani (now the 
Court of Appeal). Messir Marino Grimani was one 
of the very foremost Venetians who plumed them- 
selves as being " the first gentlemen in Europe not 
considering it a disgrace to be merchants as well." 
The fruits of his commercial success were displayed, 
not only in the appointments of the palace, but 
in the delights of his lovely villa-gardens at Santa 
Caterina, with their lovely views over the lagunes 
to Murano and her sister isles. Madonna Morosina 
shared her husband's al fresco tastes, for her father's 
gardens at San Canciano were as charming as any of 
those Venetian beauty-spots. 

Messir Marino was the popular candidate for the 
throne, left vacant by the death of Doge Pasquale 
Cicogna. He was famed for his generosity and 
was especially delighted to provide entertainment for 
poor people and their families. His election by the 
''Forty" was unanimous: probably the gracious 
Madonna Morosina, her personality, her refinement, 
and her wit, had a good deal to do with the 
decision ! Maintaining his reputation for magnifi- 
cent hospitality the new Doge furnished banquets 

283 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

for three whole days to every working man and 
woman in \'enice. His Election Progress around 
the Piazza was accompanied by lavish largesse, and, 
not satisfied with what his suite scattered broadcast, 
the amiable Dogaressa, accompanied by her three 
daughters, from the State balconv of the Ducal 
Palace, threw handfuls of silver and copper coins 
among the crowds in the Piazza. Xot only was the 
Doo-e orenerous and the Dosraressa afiable, but he 
was pompous and she ambitious. They determined 
that her Entry in State and her Coronation should 
surpass anything yet " seen in Venice."" 

The spirit of going-one-better-than-one"s-neigh- 
bours. was a very stron^lv marked characteristic of 
Venetians all throucrh their history. Certainly there 
was somethincr of vulsfaritv in the idea, but there 
was also distinction in the realisation. If the Do'^^e 
and Dogaressa were high and mighty sort of people 
their elevation also raised the tone of society, and 
materially improved the condition of employment. 
Hence the public were quite responsive to the call 
of their Serenities. 

The pageant, or "Triumph" of Dogaressa 
Morosina Morosini-Grimani was postponed until 
May 1597, in order that the new appointments, 
decorations, and personal adornments, might be 
made as splendid as possible. Every craftsman 
and craftswoman went to work with a will, and 
nobody cared in the least about any sumptuary laws 
of the past nor any other arbitrary indictment. The 
" Forty" and the " Ten " made no move and con- 
sequently everything went on with the greatest 
equanimity. 

One new feature was noted with respect to 
2 84 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

the Dogaressa and her Coronation — the delivery, 
printing, and circulation broadcast, of elegant and 
eloquent panegyrics. Commissions were eagerly 
accepted by poets, orators, and publishers — one of 
these effusions, as an example, ran as follows : — 

" O magnanimous Duchess 
O most glorious grand Duke 
No such two Divinities 
Ere have gladden'd Venice skies ! " 

The Dogaressa was addressed by her admirers 
as " Most Singular and Most Serene Lady, words 
fail to assure your Highness of the devotion of your 
enthusiastically admiring servants." Much the same 
high-flown sentiment distinguishes Palazzi's pack 
of Playing-cards, for, on the Knight of Coins 
(Diamonds), we read : — " The Coronation of 
Morosina Morosini, wife of Doge Marino Grimani 
Anno 1597. She commands not alone herself but 
she is Mistress of a mighty Empire." 

Upon the morning of her "Triumph" the 
Dogaressa, attended by four hundred young noble- 
women, all beautifully dressed in white silk lace, — 
in honour of her Serenity's patronage of Burano, — 
and covered with newly-mounted jewels, — each girl 
an animated miniature Golconda — took her place 
upon a dais in the great hall of the Grimani palace, 
— lately completed (1581) by the famous architect 
Sammichieli. The walls of the noble apartment 
were hung with a novel and effective decoration, — - 
stamped leather, gilded and emblazoned. This was 
a new artistic adjunct in princely mansions lately 
introduced from Cordoba in Spain. The vogue 
spread at once in Venice, and, before the end of the 
century, it was computed that three thousand skilled 

285 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

workers were employed by the Guild of Leather- 
merchants, and a sum of one hundred thousand gold 
ducats was added to their annual revenues. 

Meanwhile a lordly deputation had been 
despatched by the " Forty " to salute " The First 
Lady of Venice " and bespeak her acceptance of 
the Promissione, and thereafter to escort her on 
her solemn Entry. The noble Lords found her 
Serenity sumptuously attired in tissue of fine gold 
with an immense State mantle of cloth of gold em- 
broidered all over with silver floral designs in high 
relief, — quite a novel and truly rich production of 
Venetian brains and Venetian hands. It was 
reported that this magnificent robe was manufactured 
under the Dogaressas personal directions and after 
her own design. 

The cap of the new Corno was of the same 
costly material, the coronal was a mass of immense 
precious stones, and from underneath it fell a 
delicate veil of white silk lace shot with gold and 
silver threads and heavily spangled with jewels. 
Upon her open bosom, lightly covered with a fichu 
of priceless Burano lace sewn with pearls, reposed a 
flashing cross of brilliants, suspended by a very 
exquisitely interlaced chain of burnished gold. Her 
fingers were covered with gemmed rings, which her 
Serenity was very careful not to hide within a pair 
of beautifully embroidered gloves held by one of her 
ladies. 

The ceremony of the presentation of the Pro- 
missione was soon over, and, in return, the 
Dogaressa personally handed to each noble Lord 
of the deputation the customary gift of a purse of 
cloth of gold containing, not the usual number 

286 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

of gold ducats, but a special token — an osella of 
gold, after the example of Doge Antonio Grimani, 
her Consort's great-uncle, in 1521. The osella 
had, on the obverse, a profile in relief of the 
Dogaressa wearing the Ducal Corno, with her 
name *' Mavrocena Mavioceni : " upon the reverse 
was a raised wreath of laurel encircling the legend : 
— *' Manus Mavrocenae Grimanse Ducessse : Venet : 

I597-" 

The '' Bucintoro'' received on board just such 
another illustrious company as that which graced 
the water-pageant of Dogaressa Zilia Dandolo- 
Priuli forty years before. The costumes of the 
suite were richer and in better taste than those of 
Dogaressa Z ilia's Court ; — cloth of silver sewn 
with pearls and raised flowers in gold looked more 
delicate than the customary heavy cloth of gold. 
The palaces, the dwelling-houses, and the churches 
by the Canal, were all lavishly decorated upon a 
uniform and beautiful plan. Coronation favours, 
bestowed upon all applicants at the Doge's com- 
mand, imparted a note of festivity quite striking 
but harmonious. Venice for the nonce became 
the city of the Morosini-Grimani ; but, perhaps, 
some of the noble Lords regarded these tokens of 
popularity with uneasy minds ; they had, in all 
their generations, a wholesome dread of a personal 
Ducal rule. 

The pageant on the Canal was the most re- 
markable ever undertaken by the Trade-Guilds. 
Almost every gondola and barca was formed into 
a fabled beast of the earth or some fearsome 
sea monster. The whole Court of Parnassus was 
enlisted in honour of the Dogaressa, and the Gods 

287 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

and Goddesses floated proudly and qualndy by. 
An immense fleet of bregantini, — great vessels with 
sweeps, — filled with spectators of all classes, followed 
in the wake of the '^ BucintoroT Once more the 
ripples of the quiet tideway were charged with sweetest 
perfumes, and covered with flowers — mostly damask 
roses — the floral emblem of Morosini. 

The ceremonies of the Landing, in the Basilica, 
and in the Ducal Palace, were all performed with 
splendour, and the Dogaressa retired to her private 
apartments to remove her heavy State robes and 
assume her ball-costume — for, of course, dancing 
was the finale of all Court functions. Dogaressa 
Morosina's ball was unique and historical : all 
Venice danced where there was any room, for 
every place was crowded — more than two hundred 
thousand visitors had to be accommodated some- 
where or other. Dancing platforms were erected 
upon ranges of barges on the canals, and Venice 
sang and danced — danced and sang, the livelong 
night in ecstasy. Within the Ducal Palace the 
Sala dello Scrutino was set apart for refreshments 
of the choicest kind. The old Greek menus, which 
had delighted the sybaritic Romans of Mecaenas* 
time were revived. At the great banquet, given 
by the Doge and Dogaressa to the dignitaries of 
the Church and State, and the foreign Princes and 
Ambassadors, there were forty-seven courses, begin- 
ning with spiced sturgeon and ending with "apples 
of Paradise." 

The day after the Coronation was occupied in 
giving and viewing presents. To every noble and 
gentle person assisting at the ceremonies, the Doge 
and Dogaressa gave an osella, to the officials and 

288 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

domestics gifts of golden ducats, to the worthy poor 
hospitable spreads of good cheer. Pope Clement 
VIII. sent a Legate with a ''Golden Rose" to 
the Dogaressa and a jewelled Corno to the Doge. 
The Duke of Savoy offered a massive belt of thirty 
golden rosettes covered with fine pearls, but it was 
incontinently seized by the Provvidetori delle Pompe, 
possibly as a mean protest just to show their power ! 
Many other costly gifts found their way into the 
hands and the collection of the Most Serene 
couple. 

On the third day was held a grand naval review 
before the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, in 
which ships of England, Holland, and Flanders 
took part. A regatta and aquatic sports were 
contested between the native gondoliers and 
marines, and the foreign sailors, dressed severally 
in white and red costumes. The contention was 
the keenest of the keen. The Nicolotti and 
Castellani mainly held their own, but when some 
of their men were defeated, their wives drove 
them home with sticks and banter: — *' Va! Val 
Via di quid, parca, infame vituperoso I " 

In the evening all Venice was illuminated, and 
we can very well imagine the glory and the eerie- 
ness of the spectacle, — Venice, — standing in and 
out of the water, the serenity of a May night 
over her, and her flashing moving gondola lights 
was like the city of a dream, the home of Gods 
and fairies. 

"A City magical in splendour 
Rising out the light beyond the Sea." 

All through the eleven-years dogado of Doge 

T . 28q 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Marino Grimani, peaceful and prosperous con- 
ditions were the lot of a busy people. The arts 
and crafts had reached the apogee of their fame. 
The Dogaressa was the patroness especially of 
the lace-workers of Burano, — following the example 
of Dogaressa Dandolo - Malipiero of a hundred 
and forty years ago. Moreover she headed 
a committee of noble ladies to encourage 
the delightful craft among the gentlewomen of 
Venice. 

Doge Marino Grimani died in 1608, and the 
widowed Dogaressa gave herself to works of 
piety, — for example she restored the church 
of San Sebastiano. She survived her Con- 
sort eight years and died on the 21st of 
J anuary 1613-1614 — directing in her will that 
her body should not be embalmed. The 
funeral was a State function, recalling that 
of Dogaressa Zilia Dandolo - Priuli, at SS. 
Giovanni e Paolo, where an impassioned oration 
was pronounced: — '' Illinc clamor, hinc silen- 
tium: mine IcBtitia, hinc mcemor : illinc ludi, 
hinc lacrymcer The Doge and Dogaressa took 
their long last sleep under the splendid monument 
by Girolamo Compagna, in the simple church of 
San Giuseppe di Castello, just beneath the 
splendid picture by Tintoretto of "St Michael 
slaying the Dragon," which the Doge had com- 
missioned, and wherein he is represented kneeling 
in the red robes and ermine of a Captain of the 
** Forty." 

In '-The Merchant of Venice," Shakespeare, in 
two concise paragraphs, illustrates quite character- 
istically the prosperity and peace enjoyed by 

290 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

the Venetians at the end of the sixteenth 
century : — 

" The trade and prosperity of the City 

Consisteth of all nations " 

Act III., Scene iv. 

*' How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon the bank ! 
Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music 
Creep on our ears. Softest stillness and thought 
Become the touches of sweet harmony ..." 

Act L, Scene iv. 



291 



CHAPTER VIII 



The Sun of Venice had set ! Her bright eold 

was turned to tarnished brass, her jewels had lost 
their lustre, and her pearls were moribund ! Yet 
she lingered on for many and many a year — well- 
nicfh two hundred. The beacons of the laofunes 
and the shrines on the canals burnt dimly, and the 
incense in the churches seemed to have lost its 
arom^a. Sighs and yawns from dispirited and 
indolent citizens indicated the dissolution of her 
industries. Brawls and disputes were exchanged 
for courtly greetings : gambling dens and brothels 
prostituted men and women once renowned for 
temperance and probity. 

A lingering death is always the most distressing, 
both for the individual and the watchers standingr 
by : this was to be the melancholy ending of the 
"Queen of the Adriatic." Nevertheless, as with 
the man, so with the City, lucid intervals recurred 
and hopeful rallies, wherein episodes, pathetic and 
stirring, moved the torpid brain and feeble pulse. 
Venice was " Venus Calva'' at her birth — so would 
she die. Each year saw her robbed of some posses- 
sion, each year saw her enemies closing more nearly 
in. each year saw foreigners compressing more and 
more her markets ; and yet, men came and went, 
and women too, who moved the body politic mightily, 
and made the lookers-on wonder whether, after 

292 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

all, the Lion of Saint Mark was dying or only- 
sleeping. 

Heavy-footed were those decadent years, they 
took their step from the dismal tramp of mourners 
at the frequent obsequies of the Doges and Dogar- 
essas. The great bell of the Basilica, announcing 
year after year, or nearly so, with muffled knell the 
demise of a Chief Magistrate came to be listened 
to without emotion. In some hearts, perhaps beat- 
ing more loyally than the rest, were pangs of 
remorse for a glorious past never to return, and 
misgivings for a fateful future fraught with fears, 
but patriotism, honour, and devotion, were the 
precious possession of a dwindling minority. 

Between 1605 and the end of the Republic in 
1797, thirty-one Doges mounted the Ducal throne 
in turn : their names and dates we know, but very 
little about their deeds or the times in which they 
lived, — history was silent. Of their Consorts ten 
only are known by name and nothing much beside : 
only four or five of them, in one hundred and ninety 
years, have left any record in the ^' Libro dOro 
delle Dogaresse di Veneziar 

The men and women of Venice had become a 
little less animated and articulate than the face cards 
in a pack. Indeed the end of Venice was much 
like the popular game of ''La Trappola,'' in which 
thirty-six cards out of the fifty-two were used — the 
mother of the present-day whist. The suits were 
four: — '' Spade y' — Swords, or Spades, — threatened 
the faint-hearted ; Coppe, — Cups or Hearts, — 
suggested delights to the perceiving ; Denari, — 
Coins or Diamonds, — hinted at profitable invest- 
ments ; and Bastoniy — Sticks or Clubs, — promised 

293 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

punishment to the dishonest. Venice was a card- 
table, and Venetians were content to prolong their 
enervating leisure, beguiled by the chance of the 
'' Naibi,'' — tricks, — so named by their children in 
imitative games. 

Certainly the craftsmen and craftswomen still 
wove rich lengths of cloth of gold, the goldsmiths 
still made precious jewels, the glass-blowers still 
produced their fragile virgin-ware, the lacemakers 
their delicate network, and the hairdressers still 
turned, tossed, and frizzed, rare strands of golden 
hair ; but princely patronesses at the Ducal Palace 
were few and unresplendent. The painters went on 
painting — Canaletto, Guardi, and Longhi, were, in 
their time, quite as characteristic and far more 
topical than were Tintoretto, Veronese, and Palma 
Vecchio, but palette-masters as well as sculptors 
and architects, were clients of the Doges not of the 
Dogaressas. 

The loth of January 1645, was a black-letter day 
for women's art and artifice in Venice. The Council 
issued an edict forbidding the Coronation of the 
Dogaressa as a " cosa non neccessaria I " Apparently 
her Serenity was not to be denied the solemn Entry, 
but even that stately function was to be curtailed 
of much of its pomp and circumstance. The 
' Bucintoro " was not to be used, the solemn Bene- 
diction in the Basilica was discouraged, and the 
Ducal Palace was closed against the wonted exhibi- 
tions of the Trade-Guilds. 

After Doge Marino Grimani there followed a 
dogal line of ten very old men, — all octogenarians, 
— one after the other, halting to their waiting graves, 
— striking but lamentable figures of the decay and 

294 








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'I 

•'-It 



i^ 



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o 

Oh ^ 

< 6 S 
H o S 

< m § 

O .g pq 

<! .y M 

< ^ 5 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

death of Venice. Whether eight of them were 
widowers we know not, but only two Dogaressas' 
names are recorded, — Signore Elena Barbarigo- 
Priuli (i 6 1 8- 1 623), and Chiara Delfino-Conaro 
(1625- 1 629). Those ten old Doges were mostly 
parsimonious, very weary of life, and generally un- 
interesting, and probably their wives and families 
were as prosaic and uninteresting as themselves. 

There was however something naively burlesque 
in the decision of Dogaressa Paolina Loredano- 
Contarini, the Consort of Doge Carlo Contarini 
(1655-1656), not to appear in any public ceremonial. 
She was an immensely stout woman and unusually 
plain-looking, and she feared that the salutations 
of the populace would not partake of their usually 
complimentary character. Venetians had an innate 
sense of humour, and personal peculiarities appealed 
irresistibly to their risible faculties. Dogaressa 
or not, she would undoubtedly have been the butt 
of ridicule ! 

Palazzi in his *' Fasti Ducales " says of her, " non 
volvendo mostrarsi in publico!' He adds that on 
the facade of the church of San Vitale, Guiseppe 
Guoccola sculptured the busts of Doge Carlo and 
Dogaressa Paolina Contarini, placed there in 
gratitude for their noble bequests to the clergy. 
He also records that Madonna Paolina Loredano, 
the daughter of Messir Lorenzo Loredano, of the 
Ducal line, was married to Messir Carlo Contarini 
on 22nd February 1600, in the Church of San Polo — 
so they were blessed to see their golden jubilee. 

Seven undistinguished Doges followed Doge 
Carlo Contarini, during thirty- two years — 1656- 
1688. The names of only three Dogaressas are 

295 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

noted: — Signore Andriana Priuli-Conaro (1656^ 
Elisabetta. Pisani-Valier (1656-1658). and Lucia 
Barbarigo - Pesaro (165S-1659); but we know 
nothino: more about them. 

In 16SS \'enice roused herself once more to 
welcome home, with enthusiastic honours, one of 
the greatest generals she had ever produced — 
Cavaliere Francesco Morosini. Thrice he bore the 
grand rank of Captain-General of the Venetian 
fleet, and thrice he carried her colours nobly on to 
victory. The twenty-five years' war with Turkey 
for the possession of Candia gave the Admiral and 
his devoted forces rare opportunities for the display 
of patriotism and prowess, and right worthily 
they acquitted themselves. The worsted Turks 
were com.pelled to yield the Morea and its classical 
sites to the victorious Venetians. That was the 
rare gift Francesco Morosini laid at the feet of the 
aged " Queen of the Adriatic."' 

Xo foreign conquest for many a long year had 
been scored to \'enetian arms, and she had lost all 
that she had fought for ; but now new life, new 
hope, new enterprise swept over canali, cayyipi, 
and case. Every man was a soldier or sailor, 
every boy an embryo hero. Turkish flags again 
waved before the Basilica, Turkish prisoners again 
filled the Arsenal. Turkish treasures again were 
poured out upon the Lido. The Captain-GeneraFs 
return was a triumph. Greeted by nobles and 
citizens in unison, he was dubbed '' Peloponesiaco^ 
and lifted tumultuously upon the Ducal throne. — 
latelv vacated bv the death of Dos^e Marcantonio 
Giustiniani. 

Alas, we know not whether a jubilant Dogaressa 

296 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

shared his honours. Possibly the valiant hero had 
had little or no time during his lifelong service to 
the State for serious love-making, and though, by 
a sailor's licence, he may have had a wife in every 
port, no cicisbeo ox patita was possible as Dogaressa. 
Relics of Doge Francisco Morosini may be seen 
at the Museo Civico, his tomb is in San Stefano, 
and a triumphal arch, erected in his honour by the 
Government, is within the Sala del Scrutino of the 
Ducal Palace. 

If the hero Doge had no Consort, his successor 
was more fortunate : indeed Doge Silvestro Valier 
(1694- 1 700), lives in history upon the fair fame of 
his wife — many rulers of States and lesser magnates 
have had the same fortunate experience. We may 
read, in relation to Dogaressa Elisabetta Quirini- 
Valier, the true old saying *' manners maketh man" 
as woman maketh man ! 

In spite of the prohibition of 1645 the new First 
Lady of Venice made her solemn Entry and was 
crowned with all the usual ceremonies. On the 
4th of March 1694, the Dogaressa, robed in a great 
State mantle of cloth of gold trimmed with sable, 
and wearing upon her head a white lace veil and 
a jewelled Corno, with a collar and pendant cross 
of diamonds, and attended by a numerous suite of 
gentlewomen, awaited the deputation of salutation 
from the Council of *' Forty." Her osella had her 
profile in relief and the legend: — ''Elisabetta 
Quirina- Valeria Ducissa Venetiarum 1694." Her 
progress from the Palazzo Valier to the Ducal 
Palace has not been described, but it appears that 
her assumption of the Corno gave umbrage to the 
Provvidetori delle Pompe, and other captious critics, 

297 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

for a curious enactment of the Council, on 13th 
July 1700, forbade the Dogaressa wearing at any- 
time a Corno on her head. 

Doge Silvestro Valier and Dogaressa Elisabetta 
Quirini-Valier had been married in the church of 
Santa Maria Formosa, on the i8th of July 1649: 
consequently they lived to celebrate their golden 
wedding in 1699. In the case too of Dogaressa 
Elisabetta another restriction of the Promts sione 
was cancelled — her right to receive foreign ambas- 
sadors. Surrounded by her Court of maids of 
honour and gentlewomen-in-waiting, she entertained 
all the envoys in turn accredited to Venice, and 
moreover, accepted at their hands costly gifts 
against all the prohibitory clauses of State decrees. 

At the Museo Civico is a putative portrait of 
the Dogaressa. She has fair hair entwined with 
silver thread, perhaps to foil the natural silver 
strands, her features retain traces of distinction and 
of beauty. Her skin is pale, her eyes bright, and 
she wears an air of repose and refinement with no 
little natural dignity of carriage. Several of her 
letters have been preserved, wherein she shows 
herself to have been a woman of sympathetic and 
charitable disposition, but of retiring and unassum- 
ing manners. 

Doge Sebastiano Valier died in 1700, and was 
buried near the second altar in the right aisle of 
SS. Giovanni e Paolo, under the enormous monu- 
ment erected by his father. Doge Betruccio Valier, 
who died in 1658. There too, eight years after, 
the widowed Dogaressa was laid to rest. Her 
memorial statue by Giovanni Bonazza represents 
her as a large and wrinkled woman, with elaborate 

298 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

curls round her face, and covered to her feet with 
brocade, furs, laces, embroidery, and jewels — some- 
thing perchance like a Venetian replica of our 
own Elisabeth ! The epitaph is as follows : — 
'' Elisabetta Quirini Silvestri Conjux, Romana 
virtute, Veneta Pietate, et Ducale Corona Insignis, 
Obiit MDCCVIII. 



II 



The seventeenth century in Venice, was essentially 
one of lean years, strangely contrasting with the 
exuberant life of its predecessor ; whilst the 
eighteenth century saw eight decades of disaster, 
famine, and death! Candia, the only remaining 
jewel in the crown of Venice, was rudely snatched 
from its tarnished setting and no effort was forth- 
coming to regain the lost treasure. Everything 
went from bad to worse. The nobles unblushingly 
proclaimed their contempt for commerce and 
conquest. The armed bands of the Republic were 
not maintained as a fighting force, and the ships 
of war were allowed to rot and rust at their 
anchorage. The citizens, imitating the madness 
of their betters, allowed industry and trade to slip 
through their fingers ; and ceased to care when 
foreign capitalists and foreign workmen settled 
down among them, and exploited their looms and 
tools. 

Pleasure, extravagance, gaming, and immorality, 
ate like foul cancers into the vitals of society. 

The one and only aim of Venetians of every 
class was to dissipate the splendid heritage and 

299 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

spend the resources of their ancestors. A noble 
would light-heartedly wager his bank-balance, his 
estate, his palace and his all, on some ephemeral 
passion ; and yet the gaiety of life was never so 
effulgent in the city of Venus. Venice was the 
plaything of Europe, the pantomime of Italy, 
and the shadow-dance of herself — bewitching in 
her heedless spendthrift self-indulgence, a whirling 
ballerina, scattering her favours, her kisses, and 
her pleas for plaudits everywhere. 

The first eight Doges of the eighteenth century 
passed sadly across the Dogal pageant ground, — 
"lean, slippered pantaloons" as Shakespeare has 
it, or little better. With them went solitarily and 
unemotionally but two Dogaressas — Signora Laura 
Conaro-Conaro, 1709- 1722, and Signora Elena 
Badoero-P^ano, 1 735-1 741. The last we know 
only by her name, and yet that name is a golden 
one, for was not the family of Badoero or 
Partecipazio, the very first of all the nobility, and 
was not her great ancestor, Agnello Partecipazio, 
the first Maker and the first " Grand Doge of 
Venice ! " Donna Laura Conaro, daughter of Messir 
or Cavaliere, Nicolo Conaro, — all the men of 
Venice claimed knightly rank in her decadent 
days, — married Messir, or Cavaliere Giovanni 
Conaro, her cousin, on nth October 1667, in the 
church of Gli Gesuati. She appears to have 
been a very proper sort of woman : at all events 
the fast life of the nobles and their ladies had no 
charms for her, and she set her face resolutely 
against the extravagances and indecencies around 
her. Consequently, when Doge Giovanni Conaro 
died in 1722, the Dogaressa entered Religion and 

300 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

became a postulant of the Order of the Augustlnians 
of SS. Gervaso e Protasio. There she passed 
the residue of her days in fasting, praying, and 
alms-giving, being consoled gready by the visits 
of her three devoted sons, Francesco, Nicolo, and 
Alvise, whom she received within her narrow cell 
with its little iron-barred window. 

The devout Signora had retained, — rather 
contrary to any vow of poverty she may have 
taken, — a quantity of personal belongings — money, 
articles in gold and silver, and other valuables : 
these she bequeathed to the Prioress of the Convent, 
the Reverend Mother Maria Lucia. In a purse 
were found one thousand six hundred and ninety- 
four zecchini, — small silver coins, — another purse 
contained one hundred and forty gold ducats. 
Among the treasures were crosses, reliquaries, 
candlesticks, salvers, sconces, pomi or hand- 
warmers, bowls, knives, forks, spoons, flagons, 
vases, medals, thimbles, toilet-boxes and brushes, 
trays, inkstands, etc. etc., all of pure and beautifully 
wrought silver. 

In a chest of drawers, were articles of jewellery, 
silver filigree work, gold medals, and very many 
other objects, — lover's offerings, curios, and rock- 
crystal beads. Among the personal ornaments 
were bracelets, rings, and necklaces of diamonds 
and turquoises. Perhaps the most unexpected 
property was the Signora's gilded walnut bedstead, 
with its coverlet of silk and gold, edged with rare 
Burano point-lace and gold and silver fringe, and 
lined with blue and yellow Chinese satin. In a 
cedar coffer were found a rich robe of crimson 
velvet worked with gold, a skirt of pink satin 

301 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

trimmed with silver lace, and other costly garments, 
but, alas, they were all in rags and tatters, — 
eloquent tokens of the rottenness and emptiness 
of earthly glory. 

Dogaressa Laura, quietly and unregretfully laid 
aside the robes of State, to die and to be buried in 
the sackcloth of humility, may she rest in peace. 
Ten years after reverent hands had laid "Sister" 
Laura in her humble grave, within the burial -plot 
of the Convent, two other hands were clasped in 
the joyous pledge of matrimony, — Cavaliere 
Giovanni Alvise Mocenigo, Procurator of San 
Marco, and Donna Pisana Conaro, daughter of 
Messir Federico Conaro, who, on 5th October 1739, 
were made man and wife together, in the new and 
sumptuous church of Santa Maria del Salute. This 
was an alliance of the two most powerful families 
of the time, and great things were expected from 
the union. 

The '' Archivio Privato di Mocenigo'' contains 
an inventory of Donna Pisana's trousseau, which 
gives an excellent idea of the expensive splendour 
of the wedding outfit of a noble bride. 

Cavaliere Mocenigo's sister, Paolina, had married 
Prince Trivulzio of Milan, and she, despite her rank, 
undertook to purchase at first-hand things of beauty 
and joy for the bride-elect. From Milan went gold 
brocades and silver silken stuffs of crimson, blue, 
and pearl colour, embroidered with gold and silver. 
Paris supplied bodices, fichus and tippets of rich 
corded silk worked with floral designs in gold and 
silver, silk handkerchiefs, collarettes, and sleeves 
of lace and gold and silver thread, and toilet appoint- 
ments in gold and silver. Antwerp contributed 

302 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

caps, collars and cuffs, of the finest linen thread and 
linen articles for the toilet — perhaps also under- 
clothing, although not named — ladies were perhaps 
not so particular then as now in this respect ! From 
England came a gold repeater- watch with a jewelled 
chain, and many more articles in metal. Home 
industries were not overlooked for the bill for 
Burano punto in ariuy reached six hundred and 
sixty gold ducats. The total value, not including 
magnificent jewels and other splendid items of the 
goldsmith's craft, exceeded twenty thousand gold 
ducats ! 

In 1763, Cavaliere Giovanni Alvise Mocenigo 
was unanimously elected Doge by the Council of 
Forty, and the people acquiesced in his election 
without demur. The new Doge determined to 
revive the ceremonies of the sixteenth Century, and 
the ''Forty" appear to have offered no opposition, 
— indeed they were quite favourable to the project. 
The Promissione contained several notable clauses 
with respect to the privileges and honours per- 
taining to the new Dogaressa. Three days before 
the election of the Doge the Council decreed that 
the solemn Entry should be conducted with tradi- 
tional full State. Her Serenity's robes of State 
were to be fashioned on the old-time models, 
although she was forbidden to assume the Corno, 
Her right to accept the offerings of the Trade- 
Guilds, of Ambassadors, and others, was acknow- 
ledged. 

Upon the morning of her ''Triumph," 22nd 
April, the Council despatched the Secretaries of 
State to greet the new First Lady. One of them, 
Messir Cesare Vignola, offered a flattering address, 

303 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

in the name of the Council, praising her virtues and 
extolling her charms: — **Your Serenity has the 
noble and particular admiration of all the Courts of 
Italy, and their Excellencies look for a great revival 
of industry and prosperity within the Republic under 
your discriminating patronage. ..." The water- 
pageant, which conducted the Dogaressa to the 
Ducal Palace, saw no '' Bucintoro'' certainly, but 
innumerable flotillas of decorated barcas and 
gondolas. Within the Sala di Udienza del Doge 
she was welcomed by the nobles and State officials. 

The fetes were prolonged, as in former times, 
for three days, upon each of which the Dogaressa 
appeared in the richest of rich costumes, and her 
jewels varied with her dress. Upon the first day, 
after she had removed her heavy State mantle of 
silver embossed cloth of gold, she wore a sottana, or 
gown, of silver tissue overlaid with sprays of flowers 
in gold relief, the bodice was covered with palettes 
of solid gold with a white cincture of gold and 
immense brilliants, her long veil of fine white silk 
lace fell from under a coronet of gold and precious 
stones. She wore too the customary large pectoral 
cross of diamonds and many fine gemmed rings. 

Each day wound up with a Court ball, at which 
the Dogaressa danced minuets in turn with each 
of the Procurators of San Marco. The company 
included Princess Faustina Rezzonico, niece of the 
Pope, the wives and daughters of the foreign 
ambassadors, and all the more distinguished gentle- 
women of the Court and City. Great were the 
public rejoicings at this splendid revival of prestige 
and prosperity. Surely Venice was once more 
herself, — the radiant Golden Queen, — at least a 

304 




THE FORTUNE-TELLER. 
Piero Longhi, (xviii Century). 

XATIOXAL (iAIJ.KRV, LONDON. 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

second youth was hers. Her silver locks amongst 
the gold appeared to be recoloured, wrinkles of 
and witherings of brow and breast vanished, her 
step was once more lilting. Yes, it was even so, 
the last flash in the pan, — the expiring effort of a 
long life. No more Dogaressas followed in Signora 
Pisana Cornaro-Mocenigo's golden pageant foot- 
steps, — Venice had no more honours to bestow. 

It was only what might have been expected 
that poets, musicians, orators, and chroniclers, 
should illustrate these unwonted festivities, but 
alas their efforts partook of the fulsome and in- 
sincere. The Muse of Poetry, the Spirit of Music, 
and the Sibyl of History were dying in the common 
death : their inspirations were as the vapourings of 
delirium. 

*'Non le Reine su la cipria sponda 
Del cornar germe gloriosa e forte 
Domma a veder I'invita oggi la sorte 
Che il sangue in te che la virtu secondo." 

Such was their tenor. 

Dogaressa Pisana however herself took up her 
pen, and dipped it in the ink of commonsense. 
The marriage of her eldest son Alvise, in 1766, 
with the very youthful Donna Francesca Grimani, — 
granddaughter of Doge Pietro Grimani, 1741- 
1752, — was a splendid affair, wherein all the 
arrangements were personally superintended by 
the Dogaressa, and she adds in her account "would 
you believe it, the expenses were more than 456,487 
lire." The marriage was in every way satisfactory, 
the young couple were talented, highly educated, 
and very comfortably provided for. As in most 
things human when fair skies are overhead, a con- 
u 305 



The Do2:aressas of Venice 



the joy-bells of matemitv vtre cniell\ 

::: :^ sii -t^s :: -.:-..::. The 



reach her; the bride :: i . tir ::er:5-ti ':?. :t.i::\L. 



in secret for her dear ca-^rirr-in-law. 

CcHisoit 5 v:''i i: Ciriir"^"- "^^.r Ce': 



letters afirrssti :: :-t s-.t-axd ctf ::.t ts::- 
which re tf/. r.ir. 7.-=.:-'=.'. r:~e-.:ke : ruches of 
the ^'.z:z'.t .:t s'r.t \::-zz 5: '■'■t.'.. T::e iruntry 
r5:;i::cei :::e i:r:"_ni :he ":;ie lady 

::r.£iar.:e ir. 5:rr:.v5 and in jo\"s. 

::: ere -i2i:eref for, <mi ic:h 

e :: ::eii :f :J:e E^siiiia annonricei 






.1 . _i_ ••' ^.^ ^^ t--- r 



I.Iain, 
e^el 



live. * T rree iiys : ::er her death : e 
Dogaressa as ;.rr:e:! :o her bur: a 
mark :: resae:: aaia iaonour. "In a-i.:a 
same r :er goes on to say, "her Serenity 

306 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

was beautiful and full of colour. She seemed to 
be wrapt in sweet repose, and her expression be- 
tokened what she had been in her life, virtuous, 
charitable and estimable. ..." 

The funeral obsequies followed the usual custom, 
only her lying-in-state was in the Basilica, not in the 
Sala de Pioveghi. Four hundred yellow burning 
wax torches were placed around the bier and the 
candles of all the altars were alight. The remains 
were exposed in an open casket, wrapped in a State 
robe of cloth of gold, with white kid gloves, lace 
sleeves, and a veil across her bosom to her feet. 
The ''Requiem'' and Absolutions were sung by full 
choir, and the Master of the Ceremonies, Messir 
Francesco Venier, pronounced the funeral oration. 
An imposing procession bore the dead Dogaressa 
across the Piazza and by a circuitous way to SS. 
Giovanni e Paolo. 

Doge Alvise Mocenigo survived his beloved 
Consort nine years, but in 1771 he contracted a 
second marriage with a very young girl, Donna 
Polissena, daughter of Messir Giulio Contarini-Da 
Mula. It does not appear that she was accorded 
the position of a Dogaressa and she resided chiefly 
at the Doge's country villa, where he was wont to 
gather all the young, bright and talented people he 
could around him. His dogado of eleven years was 
adorned by many cultured women, who displayed 
phenomenal enthusiasm for classical study, phil- 
osophy, poetry, and literature. Probably this was a 
sublime attempt on the part of the fair sex to cor- 
rect in some way the indolence and unintelligence 
of their leisured men-folk. Madonna Polissena 
Contarini-Da Mula- Mocenigo, was the centre of a 

307 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

little Court of high-souled admirers who greeted 
her : — 

" L'Alme tue glorie echeggiano 
Ecclesa Polissena. . . ." 

There appears to have been two principal candi- 
dates for the Ducal throne upon the death of Doge 
Alvise Mocenigo in 1779, — Cavaliere Andrea Tron 
and Messir Paolo Renier. The former, however, 
was overshadowed by a scandal affecting his wife 
Madonna Caterina and the Secretary of State 
Antonio Gratarolo, and Renier was elected. He 
was an accomplished statesman, highly talented, 
and very ambitious. But his reputation very soon 
became assoiled by reason of the traffic he made of 
posts of influence and emolument under Govern- 
ment. His avarice became so grasping that it was 
said in Venice : — '' The Doge makes the beggars at 
the door of San Marco pay him for their stations ! " 

Doge Renier's family had not hitherto been 
conspicuous for services to the State, although it 
belonged to the Second grade of the nobility, dating 
its enrolment from the Genoese War of 139 1. His 
first wife. Madonna Giustina Dona- Renier, to 
whom he was married on 28th April 1733, was a 
daughter of Messir Lionardo Dona, or Donato, a 
Ducal house, — but she never became Dogaressa for 
her death took place in 1751, and she is buried in 
the church of San Antonio at Padua. 

Renier however was not a widower when he 
stepped upon the Ducal dais of Estate, but his 
spouse was not recognised in Court circles, for she 
had been a rope-dancer! He had picked her up 
accidentally at Constantinople, the same year that 
he buried Madonna Caterina : her name was 

308 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Margherita Delmaz. Friends and descendants of 
this marriage had quite another story : they said 
Madonna Margherita had never been a dancer or 
anything else of the kind. He found her, they 
affirmed, at Constantinople, where he was an Agent 
or Consul of his Government, — in a Catholic school 
for poor girls. He took her away, had her educated 
at Padua, and then married her. Doge Renier 
signalised his elevation to the throne by profuse 
distribution of largesse, hoping thereby to pave the 
way for Madonna Margherita's solemn Entry. 
This was never accomplished, but ''La Falsa 
Dogaressa,'' as she was slightingly called, was 
allowed to reside with her husband in the Ducal 
Palace. The couple became more and more un- 
popular by reason of their meanness. Insincerity, 
and ostentation. One story perhaps illustrates as 
well as another the selfishness and petulance of the 
Doge and his wife. It was said that she very much 
disliked the clanging of the church bells, — San 
Basso, on the North side of the Ducal Palace, was 
the worst offender. Madonna Margherita sent a 
peremptory order to the Pievano, or Rector, that if 
he would not stop his bell she would cut the bell 
rope ! The bells of the Basilica next came into the 
controversy, but the Prior refused the behest of 
silence. The Doge interfered and told the Prior 
that his " bells set all the Dogaressa's teeth on 
edge." A bargain however was struck, the Doge, 
on his part, promised a monthly subsidy, but when- 
ever this was overdue the Prior was at liberty to 
ring his bells as before ! 

During the reign of Doge Renier the last 
valorous deeds for Venice were done by Admiral 

309 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Agnello Emo. He attacked the Barban* pirates 
in 17S4-17S8 and freed the Adriatic and the coasts 
of North Africa from their depredations. The 
valiant Emo took up the baton of Francesco 
Morosoni, and, had his lot been cast in less de- 
o^enerate davs. he would have received from the 
Venetians a similar "Triumph." He died alone 
and in a way dishonoured in the Palazzo Diedo in 
1792. It was Doge Marco Foscarini, 1762-1763, — 
the last of the literar}' Doges. — who wrote thus of 
\'enice and the Venitians : — '' This centun,' will 
be a terrible one for our children and our orrand- 
children ! " He probably, seer-like, perceived the 
imminence of the death of the liberties of Venice, 
but he could not have known that this forecast 
would come true within fifteen years of his 
death. 

Doge Paolo Renier died on iSth February 1789, 
and his burial was conducted in secret within the 
church of San Xicolo da Tolentino. — the reason 
for this cannot be stated, perhaps he directed this 
unusual arrano^ement in his will, fearing the ebulli- 
tion of popular feeling against himself and his 
spouse. Madonna Margherita lived on till the 
nth of Januar\- 1S17: her death took place in 
her apartments in the Mocenigo Palace at San 
Stae but the place of her burial has not been 
recorded. 

We now reach the last scene in the vivid and 
venerable pageant of Venice. The body-politic 
was infinitely more insecure than the fondayfiento 
of the least stability ; she had no policy, no con- 
sistency, and no reserve of energ)*. Her men and 
her women were absolutely indifierent to her fate, 

310 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

and ribaldry and buffoonery appeared to be her 
only role. Two circumstances sufficiently illustrate 
the conditions of society at the end of the eighteenth 
century : Marital infidelity became so rampant 
that between 1782- 1796, the "Ten" registered two 
hundred and seventy-four applications for nullity. 
When the celebrated Princess Gonzaga visited 
Venice no one would have anything to do with 
her, although everybody lived in a house of glass. 
At last Madonna Caterina Tron, wife of a Procurator 
of Saint Mark, offered to chaperon her and present 
her at Court. '' Ladies," she said, speaking to her 
fellow-noble courtesans, ** this is Princess Gonzaga, 
she belongs to an illustrious family : as for the rest 
I will not answer either for you nor for myself!" 
The tempest was gathering up its strength to 
make a last and overwhelming attack upon Venice, 
defenceless as she was. Quite significant of com- 
ing catastrophe the feeblest, the weariest, and the 
least resourceful of all the long line of Doges, — 
Lodovico Manin, — in 1789 sat down despondently 
upon the Ducal throne — the last of the Doges of 
Venice. A man of strong character or of supreme 
patriotism might have saved the Republic at least 
for a time, but no popular leader appeared, and 
everybody accepted the inevitable without a 
struggle. The Dogaressa was a simple, good and 
modest woman, had she been a Valrada Candiano 
or a Zilia Dandolo she might have made a man of 
her husband, but she shrank with him from every 
responsibility and every effort. 

Dogaressa Elisabetta Grimani-Manin, daughter 
of Messir Antonio Grimani, became the wife of 
Lodovico Manin on 14th September 1748, in the 

311 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

Cr_r:h of Sar.:a Maria Ss. .ult She died at 
Trt :5: rr. tis: Air-s: :'-: :: =. nervous nialady 
:^:::: i.ne;:ti 'tr j^t^i Htr : d . -^ as carried to 
, tr.it cr.i i5 :ur-i ::; ::\t s ~e honours as 
:r.:5e ztr.ztrtz :: :r.r it^^riti I : ^i.rt5sa Pisana 
Gr:~ a.ni-Mocenigo in 1769, in the Church of S^r.is. 
: li i^ deg^li Scalzi, vrhere the D:~r ereitei :r.e 
:r ::\u~t:;: which covers his rer::a.:ns ^s r-^ as hers. 
S e 15 - ■ ■ :: res: i" :: r 5: S:i:r :::e of cloth 
:: ^i-i ever irair ir. . r :t iri with her were 



O--- 



n peril 



V ~. 



of the is: D riressi :f \ 
hausted :Jteir e;;:es : er :he is.ets :f 
when u^ I" ::i-" s ears snire ar:::J:e: 
melodicus s:u:;i — :he stu''::;^ rar 
The " second .-. :: : i, as i. : r. i. r. 1 : . : s 
n:s.S5:rr r. it :f San Marco and th^ 



ana 
rjite 



: ei : : e rr;^5:h^:e "Fort)," tried to 

terr. :::5- \: . :: e Liit : :aly, but Buonaparte 

e r. : su::. h.r was declared upon 

\ - :e : :s. ^.^y :;^;. and the Venetians 

c:ii^ Sri itjtout striking a blow in self-defence. 

L:i: ico Manin on 3rd June 1797, divested 

3" 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

himself of his mantle of State and his jewelled Corno, 
and delivered them unresistingly into the hands 
of Buonaparte's lieutenant. The '' Libro d'Oro " of 
the nobility was also voluntarily surrendered and 
publicly burned with the Ducal Regalia in the 
Piazza. The last state of Venice was infinitely 
worse than the first. The annihilation of her inde- 
pendence was celebrated by her depraved nobles 
arfd citizens with enthusiastic demonstrations of joy, 
banal doctrines of up-to-date republicanism were 
madly accepted, and everything that partook of the 
glorious past was swept away without remorse. 
The atrophy of the Venetians developed into lunacy 
— Venice died insane ! 

The fall of a great man, the end of a great cause, 
the ruin of an Empire all call forth lamentation, but 
no tears were shed for the dead Queen, no sighs 
were breathed for lost liberty, no regrets were 
uttered for " Venus Calva!' The echoes of a mighty 
past were stilled, and the gallantries of a thousand 
years were silenced — save only for the harmonious 
cries of gondoliers. 

*' I am coming — stall — but you know not for whom ! 
Stall — not for whom ! 
I am passing — preme — but I stay not for you ! 
Freme — not for you ! " 



I lay down my pen with regret — and as I close 
my ''Libro dOro delle Dogaresse di Venezia'' I 
fall into an enchanting reverie, wherein I descry 
many benevolent faces smiling at me, amid iridescent 
scintillations of Venetian rainbows. Their hair is 
golden, but here and there are strands of silver, 
which only add to the lustre of the gold. Their 

313 



The Dogaressas of Venice 

faces, if wrinkled, — for they are not maidens, — and 
their open bosoms, if withered, bear no signs of age, 
for they are beautified by the cunning artifices of 
the toilet. Their heads are crowned by horned 
diadems encrusted with flashing jewels, veils of 
white point-lace lend grace to their coiffures. From 
their shoulders downwards the figures of my bene- 
volent visitors are vested — some in crimson silk, 
but most in regal wealth of cloth of gold. Diamonds 
flash upon their breasts and around their waists. 

They are smiling at me, for I have written 
about them nothing but what is pleasant, and I 
fancy I hear their sweet melodious voices, whisper- 
ing in unison, and saying : — '' We played our ro/e in 
the best way we could, we made no enemies, but we 
left many friends — friends such as those who shall 
read our Story in your * Book of Fame.' 

I awoke from my dream, and I knew that I had 
seen a vision of the noble and devoted Dogaressas 
of Venice. 



314 



ROLL OF THE MOST SERENE 
DOGARESSAS OF VENICE 



Dogaressa. 

1. Martza d'Este(i) 

2. CaR0LA(2) 

3. Elena 



}- 



4. Felicita 

5. Angela Sanudo 

6. Arcielda 

7. GlOVANNICCIA (l) \ 

8. Valdrada (2) / " 

9. Felicita Malipiero 

•10. Marina 

11. Maria 

12. Grimelda d'Ungheria: 

13. Teodora Commend 

14. CORNELLA BEMBO 

15. Felicia = 

16. Matelda 

17. Alicia 



Doge. Date. 

Obelario Antenorio 804-810 

jAgnello Badoero 

1 or Partecipazio 810-827 

("Grand "Doge) 
rGiusTiNiANO Badoero 



18. Sofia 

19. Felicia Maria 

di boemodo 

20. Cecilia 



}= 



21. Felicita Bembo 

22. Marina Baseggio(i) 

23. COSTANZA Dl 

Sicilia 

24. Sabba Minotto (3) 

25. Maria Storlato (i) 

26. Valdrada di 

Sicilia (2) 



(2) I" 



\ or Partecipazio 827-830 


:Pietro Tribuno 


888-912 


:PlETRO CaNDIANO III. 


942-959 


PlETRO CaNDIANO IV. 


959-976 


:PlETRO ORSEOLO I. 


976-978 


(Saint) 




:Tribuno Memo 


979-991 


:PlETRO Orseolo II. 


991-1009 


("Grand" Doge) 




:Ottone Orseolo 


1009-1026 


:D0MENIG0 SeLVO 


I 07 I -1084 


:VITALE Faliero 


1084- 1096 


VlTALE MiCHIEL I. 


1 096- II 02 


:Ordelafo Faliero 


1102-1116 


DOMENIGO MiCHIEL 


1116-1130 


("Grand" Doge) 




DOMENIGO MOROSINI 


1148-1156 


VlTALE MiCHIEL II. 


1156-1172 


Sebastiana Ziani 


1172-1178 


("Grand" Doge) 




Arrigo Dandolo 


1 192-1205 


("Grand" Doge) 




Pietro Ziani 


1205-1229 


GlACOMO TiEPOLO 


1229-1249 


("Grand" Doge) 




315 





Roll 

Dogaressa. Doge. Date. 

27. Aloicia di Prata =Riniero Zeno 1253-1268 

28. Agnese Ghisi (i) \ 

29. Marchesina di r = Lorenzo Tiepolo 1268- 1275 

BlENNE (2) ^ 

30. Jacobina =Giacomo Contarini 1 275- 1 280 

31. Caterina =Giovanni Dandolo 1280-1289 

32. tommasina \ 

MOROSINI (l) h = PlETRO GraDENIGO 1289-1310 

33. Agnese Zantani (2) j ("Grand" Doge) 

34. Agnese = Marino Zorzi 1310-1312 

35. Franchesina = Giovanni Soranzo i 312-1329 

("Grand" Doge) 

36. Elisabetta = Francesco Dandolo 1329- 1339 

^ „ fBARTOLOMMEO 

37. GiusTiNA Cappello ={ Gradenigo 1339-1342 

38. ? (I) ^ 

39. Isabella y= Andrea Dandolo 1342- 1354 

de'Fieschi (2) J (" Grand " Doge) 

40. TOMMASINA 

Contarini (i) | ,, ^ 

41. Aluycia U Marino Faliero i354-i355 

Gradenigo (2) J 

42. Adriana ^ 

BORROMEO (l)l = GlOVANNI GRADENIGO I355-I356 

43. Marina Cappello (2)J 

44. Marchesina Ghisi = Lorenzo Celsi 1361-1365 

45. GlOVANNA (l) 1 ,, ^ , ^ 

46. Caterina (2) ) = Marco Cornaro 1365-1367 

47. CristinaCondulmiero=Michele Morosini 1382 

48. Agnese =Antonio Venier 1382-1400 

49. Marina Gallina =Michele Steno 1400- 14 12 

50. ? Cappello =Tommaso Mocenigo 1412-1423 

(" Grand " Doge) 

51. Maria Priuli (i) -i _ _ 

52. Marina Nani (2) | = ^^,f;^i^^^T, ^'''''t''' ^23-1457 
^ ^ ' ^ (" Grand " Doge) 

53. GlOVANNA Dandolo =Pasquale Malipiero 1457-1462 

54. Letizia (i) \ ^ 

55. Cristina Sanudo (2) / = CRisroFOEO MORO 1462-147. 

56. Aloidea Morosini =Nicolo Tron 1471-1473 

57. Elena Barbarigo(i)>| 

58. Contarina Con- 1=Nicolo Marcello 1473- 1474 

tarini Morosini (2) J 

59. Laura Zorzi =Pietro Mocenigo 1474-1476 

60. Regina Gradenigo = Andrea Vendramin 1476-1478 

316 



Roll 

Dogaressa. Doge. Date. 

6i. Taddka Michiel = Giovanni Mocenigo 1478-1485 

62. Lucia Ruzzini = Marco Barbarigo 1485- 1486 

63. Elisabetta Soranzo =Agostino Barbarigo 1486-1501 

64. GiusTiNA Giustiniani =Lionardo Loredano 1501-1521 

(" Grand " Doge) 

65. Caterina Loredan =Antonio Grimani 1521-1523 

66. BenedettaVendramin = Andrea Gritti i 523-1 538 

67. Maria Pasqualigo =Pietro Lando 1538-1545 

68. GiovannadaMula(i)\ ^ ^ 

69. ALICIA GIUSTIN.AN.(2)/ = ^'^^^C^SC0 DONATO I545-.553 

70. ZiLiA Dandolo = Lorenzo Priuli 1556-1559 

71. Elena Diedo =Girolamo Priuli 15 59- 1567 

72. Maria Pasqualigo (i)) ^ 

73. Maria Cappello (2) I = P'^^^° Loredano i 567-1 570 

74. LOREDANA Marcello =Alvise Mocenigo I570-I577 

75. Cecilia Contarini =Sebastiano Venier 1577-1578 

("Grand" Doge) 

76. Arcangela Canali =Nicolo da Ponte 1 578-1 585 

77. Laura Morosini =Pasquale Cicogna 1585-1595 

78. MoROSiNA Morosini =Marino Grimani 1595-1606 

79. Elena Barbarigo =Antonio Priuli 1618-1623 

80. Chiara Delfino = Giovanni Cornaro 1625-1629 

81. Paolina Loredano = Carlo Contarini 1655-1656 

82. Andreana Priuli = Francesco Cornaro 1656 

83. Elisabetta Pisani =Bertuccio Valier 1656-1658 

84. Lucia Barbarigo = Giovanni Pesaro 1658-1659 

85. Elisabetta Querini =Silvestro Valier 1694-1700 

86. Laura Cornaro = Giovanni Cornaro 1709-1722 

87. Elena Badoero =Alvise Pisani 1735-1741 

88. PiSANA Cornaro (i) ^ 

89. PoLissENA [- =Alvise Mocenigo 1763-1778 

Mocenigo (2) j 

90. GiUSTINA DONATO(I)^ 

Margherita 1=Paolo Renier 1779-1788 

Delmaz (2) J 

91. Elisabetta Grimani =Lodovico Manin i 788-1797 



317 



A SHORT BIBLIOGRAPHY 



Barbaro, A. 

Bembo, P. . 
Browne, xl, F. 

Do. do. 
Burckhardt, J. 
Cardncci, G. 

Do. do, 

Casola, Frate P 
Cecchetti, B. 

Do. do. 

Do. do. 
Cecchini, D. 



Cicogna, E. A. 

Do. do. 
Crawford, P. M. 

Damianus, P. 
Dardano, P. C. 
Domenichino, G 



Einstein, L. 

Faber, Frate F 
Franco, Veronica 
Franco, G. 
Do. do. 

Garnett, R. 
Gubernatis, A. de 
Hazlitt, W. C. 

Hodgson, F. C. 



Archivio Veiieio, Vols, iii., iv., v., 

xiii., xiv., XX., xxxi., xxxviii. 
Archivio Veneio Nuovo, Vols, xii., 

xiii., xiv., xvii. , xviii., xix. 
Prud. et gravi doc. circa la Elet, 

della Moglie .... 
Gli Asolani ..... 
Studies in Venetian History^ 2 vols. 
In and About Venice . 
The Culture of the Renaissance . 
Studi Letterarie .... 
Galanterie Cavalliereschi del secoli 

xii e xiii ..... 
Viaggio a Gerusalemnie 
II Doge di Venezia 
La moglie di Marino Falier . 
La Donna di Medio Evo a Venezia 
Trionfa della Dogaressa 
*' Cerimoniali " (Archivio del Stato) 

Inscrizioni Veneziane . 

Tavole Cronologiche Veneta . 

Gleanings from Venetian History^ 
2 vols. ..... 

Opera Omnia . . . 

La Bella e Dotta dif. Belle Donne 

Nobile Belle Donne 

Emporium (various writers), Vols. 
xxi. xxiv. ..... 

The Italian Renaissance in Eng- 
land ..... 

Evagaiorium Terrce Sanctce 

Terze Rime ..... 

Habiti Delle Donne Veneziane 

Habiti D' Huomini e Donne Vene- 
ziane ..... 

History of Literature . 

La Fille de la Ripublique 

History of the Venetian Republic^ 
2 vols 

Early History of Venice, 2 vols. . 



Venice, 1548 
Venice, 1588 
London; 1903 
London, 1908 
London, 1892 
Livorno, 1874 

Livorno, 1879 
Milan, 1865 
Venice, 1864 
Venice, 1871 
Venice, 1886 
Venice, 1874 
Venice, 1464- 

1592 
Venice, 1874 
Venice, 1840 

London, 1905 
Paris, 1743 
Venice, 1553 
Venice, 1561 



New York, 1902 
Stuttgart, 1849 
Venice, 1575 
Venice, 1610 

Venice, 1610 
London, 1898 
Paris, 1879 

London, 1900 
London, 1901 



A Short Bibliography 

Litta, P. G. . . PamiglU CeUbri H Italia, ii vols. Milan, 1819 

Luigini, D. . . II Libra eUIle Belle Donne . . Venice, 1553 

Lnngo, I. del . . La Donna Italiana del Buono 

Tempo Antico .... Florence, 1906 

Marinello, G. . . Gli Ornamenti'ddle Dontu . . Venice, 1562 

Molmenti, P. G. . La Dogaressa di Vemzia . . Turin, 1887 

Do. do. . Le Isole della Laguna . . . Turin, 1898 

Do. do. . Storia di Venezia, 3 vols. . . Turin, 1907 

Do. do. . f^(f«rV(f (English Version) 6 vols. . London, 1908 

Palazzi. G. . . La Virtu ift Giuoco overo Dame 

Patritie di Venetia . . . Venice, 1682 

. La Femme Italienne . . . Paris, 1907 

. L^s Delices D'ltalie . . . Paris, 1 709 

The Stones of Venice . . . London, 1S92 

. HistoricB Rerum Venetarum . Venice, 171S 

Venetia Citta Nobilissima . ' Venice, 15S1 

Vite dei Duchi di Vemtia, ^8 vols. Venice, 1530 

de Venise ...... London, 1907 

. Histoire des Ripubliqtus Italiennes Paris, 1836 

Gtiilds of Florence . . . London, 1906 

Tragedies of the Medici . . London, 1909 

. Famous Women of Florence . . London, 1909 

The Renaissance in Italy, 5 vols. . London, 1S90 

Curiosita Veneziana . . . Venice, 1^97 

. n Art et Les Artifices de la Beauts Paris, 1902 

. Habiti Antiche e Modernidi Tutto Venice, 1590 

il Mondo 

Venise Paris, 1S82 



Rodocamachi, E. 
Rogissart. F. 
Ruskin. J- . 
Sabellico, P. G. 
Sansovino, F. 
Sanudo, M. 
Selincourt, B. and H. 
Sismondi, J. C. D. 
Staley, E. . 

Do. 

Do. 
SymondSj J. A. 
Tassini, A. 
Uzanne, O. 
Vecellio, C. 

Yriarte, C. 



The ancient Chronicles of Venice may be arranged in the following order : — 

I. Cronaca di Giovanni Diacono. 

Gradense. 

Altinate. 

di Da Canale (begins 1267) 
di Marco (begins 1292). 
di Frate Paolino (1306). 
d* Andrea Dandolo — Doge, 
di Frate Pietro Carlo (1340). 

At the Museo Civico in Venice are a number of " Family Archives,'"' 
"Diaries," etc., and others, in the possession of various existing ancient 
families, are easily accessible. 



IL 


Do. 


IIL 


Do. 


IV. 


Do. 


V. 


Do. 


VL 


Do. 


VII. 


Do. 


VIIL 


Do. 



320 



INDEX 



Accouchement customs, 225 

Adriana — Queen of Padua, 3, 5 

Alaric the Goth, xv, 8 

Al-fresco Delights, 210-215 

" All for Venice ! " 161 

Altane — Roofs of houses, xxviii, 16, 

17, 27, 172 
Altino, 2, 7, 62, 78, 144 
Alvise Venier, Story of, 164, 165 
Amaden, Francesco, (Historian), 270 
Anafesto. Giovanni, 4 

,, Paolo Lucio, (ist Doge), 
10, II, 15, 62, 97 
Antenorio, Beato, 13, 14 

,, Carola, (Dogaressa), 13, 

14 

,, Cassandra, 14 

,, Martza, (Dogaressa), 315 

,, Obelario, (Doge), 12, 14 

,, Valentino, 14 

Apple, The Golden, of Paris, 58 
Aquileia, 2, 4, 10, 20, 106 
Arcelle — Dowry-coffers, 24, 30 
Ariana — (Mystic singer), 4 
Arsenal privileges, 76 
Assassinations, 37, 44, 70, 155 
Attila the Hun, 1-8 

,, A second, — Buonaparte, 312 

B 

Badobro (Partecipazio,) Agnello, 

(Doge), 15-26, 56, 86 

Elena (i), (Dogaressa), 

xxiii, 16, 19 

,, Elena (2), (Dogaressa), 

300-302 
,, Felicita, (Dogaressa), 21 

,, Giovanni, (Doge), 19-22, 

29 
,, Giustiniano, (Doge), 19- 

22 
,, Maria—" Vulcana," 26, 

27 
Orso, I., (Doge), 26, 29 
,, Orso, II., (Doge), 29 

,, Pietro, (Doge), 29 

X 32 



Balordo, Uno, — Pageant-spectacle, 

183 
Bank, First public, 70 
Banquets, 75, 106, 175, 206, 262, 

283 
Barattieri, Nicolo, — gambler, 79 
Barbara, Saint, 32, 93 
Barbarigo, Agostino, (Doge), 230- 

233 
,, Bianca Elena, (Dogaressa), 

216 
,, Elena, (Dogaressa), 295 
J, Francesco, (i), 216 
,, Francesco, (2), 231 
,, Lucia, (Dogaressa), 296 
,, Marco, (Doge), 227, 228 
" Barbarini " — young nobles, 70 
Barbaro, Ermolao, (humourist), 214 
Barnabotti, 146, 147 
Baseggio, Maria, (Dogaressa), 89 
Batango, Sofia, 115 
Bath, Use of the, xxvi, 58 
Beatrice d'Este, 231, 232 
Beauty, Castle of, 93, 94 

,, Court of, 144, 224, 272 
Belegno, Vettor, (bridegroom), 40, 41 
Bembo, Angello, 131 

,, Cornelia, (Dogaressa), 63 
,, Enrica, 63 

,, Felicita, (Dogaressa), 315 
,, Mar liana, 161 
,, Pietro, (poet), 211-213, 281, 
282 
Best-man, The, 25, 26 
Bienne, Marchesina di, (Dogaressa), 

108- 1 12 
Boccola," Story of " La, 26-28 
Boccole, Giovanni dalle, 163 

,, Felicita dalle, 163 
Body, Story of a gross, 45 
Boemodo, Felicia Maria, (Dogaressa), 

71 
Boniface of Monferrat, (Captain 

Crusader), 79 
Books, Early Venetian, 199, 200 
Borromeo, Adriana, (Dogaressa), 315 
Bota, Lionardo, (Historian), 218 
Boys' Dress, 137 
Bravi, 147, 155 



Ind 



ex 



Brenia, On the, 96, 159 
Bride, A lovely. 50 

.. Story of a Venetian, 95-96 
Brides, 8. 12, 30, 56, S5, 95, 136 
,. of Chris:. 71, 72 
,, of sniff and wood, 136 
,, Raue of, Story of the, 30- 

32.. 86 
,, trousseaiLs, 95. 192-193 
Baccheri — scented charms, xxviii 
BacLntoro — state barge. 75, 89, 154, 
i57j i7o> 192, i99> 231, 236, 254, 
287 
Buonaparte, Xapoleon, 313 
Burial, A majestic, 131, 222 
; , A forced, 199 



Calmo, Axdrea, (^Historian), 210 

Caloprini, Stefano, 47 

Calza, Compagnia della, 176-178, 

192, 213, 236-238, 254, 256, 275 
Canale, Marino da, (Historian), III 
Canali, Arcangela (Dogaressa), 278 
Candiano, Arcielda (Dogaressa), 29- 

33 
,, Domenigo, 29 
,, Elena, 39-41 
,, Giovannaccia, 33 
,, Maria, (Dogaressa), 49, 50 
,, Manna. 35, 38, 47, 48 
,, Pietro, I., 'Doge), 29 
,, Pie:ro, IL. (Doge), 29 
,, Piecro, III., (Doge), 29, 

30-32, 53 
„ Pietro, IV., (Doge), 32- 

38, 49, 152 
„ Vitale, 35, 49 
Canonesses, 130, 164, 280 
Caork, 2, 31 
"Castle of Love," 92, 93 
Cappello, Andrea, (i), 30, 31, 152 
Andrea, (2), 254 
Bianca. 'Grand Duchess), 

278 ^ 
Giovanni, 255 
Giusdna, (Dogaressa), 315 
Imelda. 53 

Maria, (Dogaressa), 267 
Marina, (Dogaressa), 152 
Pietro, 258 

Vettor, Condottiere, 204, 
233 
Cassandra, Princess, 14 
Castellani, The, 35, 77- ii9, 16S, 2S9 
Catarussa, Story of Madonna, 103- 
104 



Celsi, Lorenzo, (Doge), 154- 157 

Centanni, Marco, 238 

Cenrury,-"' ''A terrible, 310 

Chemises, II5 

Chioggia, 14, 106, 161 

Churches : — 5. Alvise, 165, SS. 
Apostoli, 16, 281. S. Bamaba, 
191, 254. S. Cipriano di Murano, 
122. S. Cristoforo, 283. S. Croce, 
68. S. Fandno, 265. 266. S. 
Gemigniano, 222. S. Giacomo di 
Rialto, 86. S. Giovanni Crisostiino, 
12S. S. Giorgio in Alga, 84. S. 
Giovanni Evangelista, 71. S. 
Giovanni Eiemosinario, 246. S. 
Giovanni e Paolo, 99. 112, 131, 
153' 157. 165, 184, 202, 218, 222, 
233.- 239! 265. 270, 275, 290, 298, 
307. S. Giobbe, 208. S.Giuseppe 
di Castello, 290. S. Giustina, 
yxiii. S. Giorgio Maggiore, 63, 
67, 6S, 91. S. Marco. 22, 36, 52, 
61, 64, 7^, 79, 132. 141, 170, 172, 
173, 222, 25S, 265, 276, 312. S. 
Maria della Carita, 228, 233. S. 
Maria degli Angeli di Muraiio, 
277. S. Maria de" Gesuid, 282. 
S. Maria Gloriosa de" Fran, 113, 
199, 207. S. Maria Formosa, 32. 
S. Maria degli Scaizi, 312. S. 
Maria del Salute, 138. 302, 312. 
S.Maria Zobenigo, 37. 5. Marina, 
167, 180, 217. S. Maurizio, 123. 
S. Nicolo da Tolentino, 310. S. 
Nicolo di Lido, 65, 67, 74, S. 
Pietro di Castello, 21, 24, 30. 35, 
4C, 51, 222. S. Polo, 295. II 
Redentore, 274. S. Salvatore, 
263, 281. S. Sebastiano, 205, 250, 
290, GU Servi, 220. S. Stefano, 
297. S- Trovaso, 77. S. Teodoro, 
36. S. Vitale, 295. S. Vito, 124. 
S. Zaccaria, 19, 66. 

Cicogna, Pasquale, (Doge), 282 

City of " Fair ' Women, xxiv-xxsii 
,, Saints, svi-xxiii 
,, Venus, xiii-xvi 

Coccio, Marcantonio, (Historian), 
214 

Colonna, Francesco, of Rome, 214 

Concordia, 2 

Condulmiero, Cristina, (Dogaressa), 
161, 179 

Constantinople, 30, 50-56, 83-85, 91 

Contarini, Andrea, (Doge), 159- 161 
,, Arrigo, (Bishop), 64 
,, Carlo. 'Doge). 295 
,, Cecilia, (Dogaressa), 276- 
278 



322 



Index 



Contarini, Contarina, (Dogaressa), 
216 
„ Domenigo, (Doge), 54 
,, Giacomo, (Doge), 112, 

160 
,, Jacobina, (Dogaressa), 112 
,, Lucrezia, Lovely, 189- 

.195 
,, Nicolo, 150 
,, Tommasina, 143 
Convents: — Sant'Alvise, 264. Sant' 
Andrea, 180. Sant' Adriana 
d'Amiano, 71. Santa Caterina, 
72. Delia Croce, Giudecca, 270. 
SS. Gervaso e Protasio, 301. 
San Lorenzo, 150, 168. Santa 
Maria degli Angeli di Murano, 
231. Santa Maria delle Vergine, 
130. San Nicolo di Murano, 281. 
San Pietro dei Fiorentini, 280. 
San Servilio, 22. Santa Trinita, 
48. San Zaccaria, 19, 33, 44, 53, 
67, 70,- 71, 78, 164, 222 
Cooking, Exquisite, 57, 107, 288 
Cornaro, Alvise, 301 

,, Caterina, (Dogaressa), 158, 

159 
„ Caterina, Queen of Cyprus, 

193, 280 
,, Felicia, (Dogaressa), 63 
,, Francesco, 301 
,, Federigo, 302 
,, Giovanna, (Dogaressa), 316 
,, Giovanni, (Doge), 300 
,, Laura, (Dogaressa), 300- 

302 
,, Marco, (i), (Doge), 157-158 
,, Marco, (2), 280 
,, Pisana, (Dogaressa), 302- 
306, 312 
Corno : — The earliest, 10. Jewelled, 
55, 216, 286. Dogaressa's, 77, 
132, 13s, 17IJ 188. Provided by 
State, 132 
" Count of Courtesy," 140 
Court Balls, Famous, 145, 288, 304 
Courtesans, xxx, 152, 153, 272, 273, 

311 
Cow, A Golden, 78 
Crusades, xxi, 63-68, 79, 92 
Cupid, Court of Prince, 23-26, 49, 57 



D 



Dalmatia, 51, 52, 53, 61, 88 
Dandolo, Andrea, (i), (Doge), 29, 31, 

53,66,127,137,138-142, 

153 



Dandolo, Andrea, (2), 132 
,, Antonio. 199 

Arrigo, (Doge), 81-83, 87. 
113,132,138,253 
,, Caterina, (Dogaressa), 115, 

116 
,, Elisabetta, (Dogaressa), 

132-138 
,, Fantino, (i), 139 
,, Fantino, (2), 139 
,, Francesco, (Doge), 132-138 
,, Giovanni, (Doge), U3-1 15 
,, Lionardo, 139 
„ Marco, (i), 139 
,, Marco, (2), 253 
,, Marino, 196 
,, Matteo, 258 
,, Pietro, 139 
,, Zilia, (Dogaressa), 253-266, 
290, 3H 
" Daughters of Venice," 278, 280 
Degna of Aquileia, 5 
Deido, Elena, (Dogaressa), 254, 267 
Delfino, Chiara, (Dogaressa), 295 
,, Giovanni, (Doge), 153 
,, Lionardo (Bishop), 170 
Delmaz, Margherita, (Falsa Dogar- 
essa !), 309, 310 
Demons, A Galley full of, 126 
Devotions, Strange, 128 
Diacono, Giovanni, (Historian), 50, 
60 
Pietro, 33 
Dialogue, A Quaint, 31-32 
Diana, Goddess, xxxi 
Dogaressa, The First, xxiii, 13, 14, 
16, 19. Patroness of the, xxiii. 
A proud, 34. Tribute to, 52. An 
imperial, 56. A voluptuous, 60. 
A self-denying, 64. Position of the, 
69. Responsibility of, 69. Corno 
ofj 775.1 32- 135. First Solemn En- 
try, 109. Patroness of Guilds, 61, 
69, 109-111, 146. Not to specu- 
late, 112. Wardrobe of, 115. State 
robes of, 117, 118. Her pettycash, 
118. A fashionable, 129. Congratu- 
late the, 133. Coronation of, 135. 
A " Grand," 138. A dowdy, 158. 
No initiative, 160. An anguished, 
164. A magnificent, 1 70-171. 
Prayers for the, 173. Will of a, 
180. A broken-hearted, 194. An 
unforgiving, 197-198. Fond of 
lace, 201, 202. And cheapness, 
205. And flowing locks, 205. A 
well-dressed, 207. A " Mother in 
Israel," 222, Letters of a, 243. 
Of the fisher-folk, 252. The most 



323 



Index 



distinguished, 253. Gifts for the, | 


DOGARESSAS, Caterina Dandolo, 115, 


259> 


260, 261. Honours for the, 


116 


263-264. A cultured, 268-275, | 


Tommasina Graden- 


307. 


An amiable, 277. Pension 


igo, 117 


for, 


266, 277. A stout, 295. 


Agnese Gradenigo, 


Treasures of a recluse, 301. Death- | 


120-126 


bed 


of a, 306. A girl, 307. A 


Agnese Zorzio, 127, 


rope 


-dancer, 309. A faint-hearted, 


128 


311- 




Franchesina Soranzo, 


OGAI 


lESSAS, Likenesses of, 33, 45, 


128-132 




50, 59, 90, 109, 138, 


Elisabetta Dandolo, 




154, 180, 186, 202, 


132-138 




203, 204, 220, 278, 


Giustina Gradenigo, 




298 


315 




,, The Succession of the : — 


Tommasina Falier, 




Martza Antenorio, 315 


143 




Carola Antenorio, 13, 


Aluycia Falier, 143- 




14 


150, 169 




Elena Badoero, xiii, 


Adriana Gradenigo, 




16-19, 56, 300 


316 




Felicita Badoero, 21, 


Marina Gradenigo, 




22 


152 




Angela Tribuno, 315 


Marchesina Celsi, 154- 




Arcielda Candiano, 


156 




29, 32, 84 


Giovanna Cornaro, 




Giovanniccia Candi- 


316 




ano, 33 


Caterina Cornaro, 158, 




Valdrada Candiano, 


159 




34-39,44,47,3" 


Cristina Morosini, 16 1 




Felicita Orseolo, 43- 


Agnese Venier, 164, 




45 


165 




Marina Memo, 47-48 


Marina Selvo, 167- 




Maria Orseolo, 49-53 


181 




Grimelda Orseolo, 53 


Maria Foscari, 186- 




Teodora Selvo, xxx, 


187 




51, 55-63, 77, 119 


Marina Foscari, 187- 




Cornelia Faliero, 63 


198 




Felicia Michielo, 63- 


Giovanna Malipiero, 




66 


199-203 




Matelda Faliero, 66, 


Letizia Moro, 316 




67 


Cristina Moro, 203- 




AUcia Michielo, 69, 70 


206 




Sofia Morosini, 68 


Aliodea Tron, 206- 




Felicia Maria Michielo, 


208, 247 




71 


Elena Marcello, 216 




Cecilia Ziani, 77, 78 


Contarina Marcello, 




Felicita Dandolo, 315 


216, 217 




Maria Ziani, 89 


Laura Mocenigo, 218 




Costanza Ziani, 89, 90, 


Regina Vendramin, 




91,96,97 


219, 220, 259 




Maria Tiepolo, 97 


Taddea Mocenigo, 




Valdrada Tiepolo, 97- 


220, 221 




99 


Lucia Barbarigo, 227, 




Aloicia Zeno, 102-105 


228 




Agnese Tiepolo, 108 


Elisabetta Barbarigo, 




Marchesina Tiepolo, 


231-233 




108-112 


Giustina Loredano, 235 




Jacobina Contarini, 


Caterina Grimani, 239- 




112 


242 



324 



Index 



DOGARESSAS, Benedetta Gritti, 243- 
248 
Maria Lando, 248 
Giovanna Donato, 

249-251 
Alicia Donato, 249- 

251 
Zilia Priuli, 253-266, 

290, 311 
Elena Priuli, 266, 267 
Maria Loredano, 267 
Loredana Mocenigo, 

268 
Cecilia Venier, 276- 

278 
Arcangela da Ponte, 

278 
Laura Cicogna, 282 
Morosina Grimani, 

282-290 
Elena Priuli, 295 
Chiara Cornaro, 295 
Paolina Contarini, 295 
Andreana Cornaro, 

296 
Elisabetta Valier, (i), 

296 
Lucia Pesaro, 296 
Elisabetta Valier, (2), 

298 
Laura Cornaro, 300- 

302 
Elena Pisano, 300 
Pisana Mocenigo, 302 

306, 312 
Poiissena Mocenigu, 

307 
Cristina Renier, 308 
Margherita Renier (?), 

308, 309 
Elisabetta Manin, 31 1, 
312 
Doge : First mention of, 9. First at 
Eraclea, 10. First at Rivo-Alto, 
15. Acclamation of, 55. Assassina- 
tion of, 37, 44, 70. Avaricious, 
308. Bed of the, 246. Canonized, 
45. Connoisseur, 149, 219. Con- 
tested Election of, 184. Crusader, 
81. Deprivation of, 196. Dream 
of, 100. " Grand," 15, 46, 66, 81, 
96, 116, 128, 138, 181, 185,234, 
275. Great eater, 244. Hard con- 
ditions for, 187. Hero, 275, 297. 
Heroic, 274. Income of, 117. 
Insulted, 145. Like Brutus, 129, 
164. Mean, 161. Millionaire, 206. 
Munificent, 233. "Never lies!" 
148. Patriotic, 237. Popular, 



154. Political, 117. Qualifications 
of, S8. Regalia of, 77. Sporting, 
240, 241, Title of, 98. "Un 
Atila," 121. Will of, 115, 217, 275 
Doge Nicolo Tron and Fair Laura 

Nogarola, Story of, 208, 209 
Domestic relations, 98, 99, 120 
Donato, Giustina, (Dogaressa), 308- 
310 
,, Francesco, (Doge), 18, 19. 
249, 251 
Dowry, A Great, 50, 189 
Dresses, Extravagant, 218, 238, 245, 

304 
•' Dumped " goods, 250, 292 
Duodene, The, 76. 



Earthquake, A Terrible, 91. 

Emo, Madonna Giovanna, 238. 
,, Agnello, Admiral, 310 

Emperors : — Basil, 50. Charle- 
magne, 12, 27. Charles V., 143. 
Constantine, 50, 54,60. Emmanuel, 
54,71,144. Enrico, 63. Frederic 
Barbarossa, 70, 74, 77. Frederic 
II., 97. John, 109. Lothair, 86. 
Maximilian IV., 235. Michael, 54. 
Napoleon Buonaparte, 312, 313. 
Otto I., 28. Otto IL, 38, 51. 
Otto III., 47, 52. 

Empresses : — Adelheid, 38, 47. 
Galla Placida, 3. Teofana, 51. 

Enchantment, 4, 48. 

Epitaphs, Dogal, 64, 68, 83, 113, 
140, 161, 180, 181, 184, 208, 218, 
233, 299. 

Eraclea, 2, 9, 10, il, 14, 20. 

Etiquette, Frate Bonvesin on, 107, 
108 

Execution of Marino Falier, 147. 

Exhibition of Guilds, 174, 259. 



" Fair " Women, Ci-ty of, xxiv-xxxii, 

59 

Faliero, Anna, 161 

„ Marino, (Doge), 142-149 
,, Matelda, (Dogaressa), 66, 67 
„ Ordelafo, (Doge), 66, 67 
,, Tommasina, (Dogaressa), 143 
,, Vitale, I.,(Doge), 54, 62, 63 
Vitale, II.,(Doge), 142 

Families: — Chief, Badoero (Parte- 



325 



Index 



cipazio), 9, 22-27, 43- Barbarigo, 
227. Barozzi, 29, 62, 120. Bembo, 
63, 157. Bragadini, 157, 161. 
Caloprini, 47, 50. Candiano, 9, 
28-41, 43. Cappello, 30, 162. 
Contarini, 62, 277. Cornaro, 63, 
280. Dandolo, 62, 96, 138. 
Falier, 62, 142. Foscari, 186. 
Giustiniani, 29, 7 1, 1 57. Gradenigo, 
53,62,117. Grimani, 239. Lore- 
dan, 142, 162. Malipiero, 162, 
186. Michiel, 9, 43, 62, 132. 
Mocenigo, 182, 186. Morosini, 
47* 50, 117. Orseolo, 9, 43, 54, 
62. Priuli, 186, 253, 266. Selvo, 
29j 54> 89- Soranzo, 128, 131. 
Tiepolo, 62, 96, 108. Ziani, 73, 91 

Fans (Ventolini), xxxi, xxxii, 33 

Fashions in Dress, xv, xxxii, 12, 23, 
46, 59, 114, 137, 152, 178, 182, 192, 
225, 256, 285, 287. 

Fedele, Cassandra, (Writer), 215 

*'Festa delle Marie," 28, 30-32, 53, 
136 

Ferrara, 65 

Fieschi, Isabella de', 139 

Fireworks, 262, 289 

Fisher-folk, Doge and Dogaressa of 
the, 252, 253 

Fisherman and the Ring," Story of 
"The, 126, 127 

Flag of Venice, 51, 64, 68 

Florence, 49, 87, 188 

Fork, A Golden, 57 

Fortune-teller, A famous, 4 

Foscari, Donate, J 86 

,, Francesco, (Doge), 184-196 
,, Giacomo, 187, 189-196 
,, Marco, 186 
5, Nicolo, 186 

Foscarini, Marco, (Doge), 310 

Fragilie, see Guilds 

Franco, Giacomo, (Engraver), xxxi 
„ Veronica, 273, 274 

Frati : — Bonvesino — " on Etiquette," 
107-108. Casola — Pen-Pictures of 
Society, 224-226. Faber — "on 
Gardens," 210. Paolo — on " Ideal 
Wives," 150 

Friuli, 12, 34, 106, 176, 204 

Fulvia of Altino, 4 

Fugitive forebears, xv, 2, 6, 7, 20, 62 



Galina, Antonio, 258 

„ Marina, (Dogaressa), 167, 
199 



Games of chance, 79 
Gardens: — Andrea Calmo on, 210. 
Frate Felice Faber on, 210. Asolo, 
215. Botanical, 165, 269. Friuli, 
215. Giudecca, 210. Love of, 
106. Murano, 106, 211-215. 
Olivolo, 35. Roof, 210. San 
Canciano, 283. Santa Caterina, 
283. Simple flower, 16. The 
Brenta, 215, 269. Zoological, 221. 
In general, 10, 16 
Garrison of girls, 95 
Gehenna, A Filthy, 164 
Genoa, 108, 128, 141, 160, 176 
Gentlemen," "The First, 283 
Ghisi, Agnese, (Dogaressa), 108 
,, Girolamo, 154 
,, Marchesina, (Dogaressa), 154 
Giano, King of Padua, 2, 3 
Giovanniccia — A divorcee, 33 
Giustina, Rossi, Story of, 121, 122 
,, Saint, xxii, xxiii, 21, 93, 
165. 
Giustiniani, Alicia, (Dogaressa), 249- 

251 
,, Bartoletta, (Abbess), 72 

,, Giorgio, 150 

,, Giustina, (Dogaressa), 

235 
, , Marcantonio, (Doge), 

296 
,, Margherita, 72 

,, Marta, 72 

,, Nicolo, (A Monk), 71, 72 

„ Paolo, 181 

Glass, Murano, 128, 129, 250 
Gloves, First use of, 58 
Gobba, Madonna Tommasina, 155 
Golden Rose, The, 231, 276, 289 
Gondolier, An amorous, 48, 49 

,, Cries of, 313 

Gradenigo, Aluycia, (Dogaressa), 
143-150, 169 
,, Anna, 117 

,, Bartolommeo, (Doge), 

127 
,, Giacomo, 117 

,, Giovanni, (i), 1 17 

,, Giovanni, (2), (Doge), 

152 
Marco, 117 
Nicolo, (i), 117 
Nicolo, (2), 144 
Paolo, 117 

Pietro, (I), (Doge), 
116, 127, 144 
,, Pietro, (2), 120 

,, Regina, (Dogaressa), 

219, 220, 259 



326 



Index 



Grado, 2 

,, Patriarch of, lo, 74 
Grave-digger, A pious, 37 
«* Great Dolls," 232 
Grimani, Antonio, (Doge), 239, 2S7 
,, Breviary, 240 
,, Domenigo, (i), 38 
,, Domenigo, (Cardinal), 240 
,, Elisabetta, (Dogaressa), 

311-312 
J, Francesca, 305 
,. Marina, 257 
,5 Marino, (Doge), 283, 290 
„ Pietro, (Doge), 305 
,, Vettor, 257 
Gritti, Andrea, (Doge), 242-246 
Guarino, Abbot, 44 
Guilds (Fragilie) : — in general, S6, 
254, 287, 292. Barber-Surgeons, 
no. Blacksmiths, 86, 109. 
Butchers, 86, no, 255. Cabinet- 
makers, 86, Carding-comb Makers, 
no. Carpenters, 86. Carriers by 
water, 86. Charity of the, 106. 
Dealers in old clothes, 115. Ex- 
hibitions of the, 109. Fishermen, 
86, 87. "Flagellants," loi, 222. 
Furriers, 86, 109. Glass-blowers, 
no, 128, 250, 260, 261. Gold 
and silver cloth makers, no. 
Goldsmiths, no, 183, 256, 260. 
Hat-makers, 31. Lace-makers, 
199. Makers of doublets, no. 
Marriage-chest makers, 30, 86. 
Masons. 86. Pageants of, 109, 
no, 134. Physicians, 140. Piety 
of, 106. Printers, 199. Saddlers, 
86. Shepherds, 86. Shoemakers, 
86, no. Silk mercers, 87, no, 
127, 128. Tailors, 109. Wool- 
weavers, 109. " Zonfi," (lame 
and blind), 116. 
Guiscardo, Roberto, 61 
Guoro, Story of Elena Candiano and 
Gherardo, 39-41. 



H 



Hair, Dressing the, xxviii, xxix, 
XXX, xxxi, 16, 24, 229, 

259 
,, Golden, XXV, xxviii, xxix, 59, 

80 
,, Hawsers of, 6 
Helen of Troy, xxviii 
Hereditary Beauty, xxvi 

,, ,, Giovanni Mari- 

nello on, xxx 



Heroines : — Adriana of Padua, 3. 
Degna of Aquileia, 5. Elena 
Candiano, 39-41. Idilia of Altino, 
4. Martza of Aquileia, 5 

High Chancellor, 133, 135, 171, 258 

Historians : — Amaden Francesco, 
270. Lionardo Bota, 218. Andrea 
Calmo, 210. Marino da Canale, 
III. Cassiodorus, 2. Marcantonio 
Coccio, 214. Andrea Dandolo, 
(Doge), 29, 31, 53, 66, 139. 
Giovanni Diacono, 50, 60. Pietro 
Diacono, 33. Francesco Donate, 
(Doge), 18, 19. Pliny, xxvi. 
Sabellico, 169. Martino Sanudo, 
II, 144, 168, 204, 214, 227. 
Giacomo Zoppi, xvii 

Horns of Hair, xxx, xxxi 

Horses, Cream-coloured, 236 

Husbands, Choose, 219 

Hospitals: — For Aged Poor, 159. 
For Pilgrims, 65. For Strangers, 
228. For Fallen Women, 153 



Ideal Wives, 150 

Idilia of Altino, 4 

Inquisition, The, 100 

Isarello, Betruccio, (Admiral), 147 

Itinerant-merchants, 103, 104 



Jael, A Second, 4 

Jesolo, 2, II, 14 

Jests, Coarse, 168 

Jewels, xxx, xxxii, 46, 56, 64, 137, 

182, 193, 226, 256, 272, 279, 297, 

301 
Jubilee, Year of, 91 



Keys of Cities, 176 

Kings : — Baldwin of Jerusalem, 66. 
Boemodo of Servia, 109. Charles 
VIII. of France, 231. Charles 
XII. of France, 235. Geiso of 
Hungary, 53. Giacomo of Cyprus, 
280. Gianoof Padua, 2. Guglielmo 
of Sicily, 89. Henry III. of France, 
271-273. Henry VIII. of England, 
235, 251. Ilario of Servia, 70. 
James IV. of Scotland, 236. Pietro 
of Aragon, 169. Stefano of Hun- 



327 



Index 



L 

La Beata Ann, 72 
LaBcnoala^SlarfaC^r :: 
•LaDomsaddleMfei:: -. :;. 

Lace,Bzr3^:. xnii, 199, .201,202, 
2i86.2o: 

:: 1:^1 Tarn, 168 

re::: _ :«?eV 21S 

LeagDc :: Ii-;:! ::; 
Leadksr 5 iin-ri ;;!' 
LoMs^ £ 11 :-: 
Lepaz::: ::i : t : :":' 
Unhiii--^ --' s ^: --: ::: 

Zaker^j - ;:: 

UfaEsriri L 1 : 1: : : ; _ : 
JjOMO i I:: it I : 11:1:1 ::^ 



lofvcfy, 93 



)*43- 






Me^ar: 



1:3 :l4 
191-193 



^ain-, 54, 65 



-35 
:i2 
3age), 234-239 



^95 






MeiL 



L:jt5 :: 



Index 



Michielo, Margherita, i6i 

,, Maria, of Hungary, 70 

,, Nicolo, 70 

,, Taddea, (Dogaressa), 220, 

221 
„ Vitale, I., (Doge), 62, 63 
,, Vitale, II., (Doge), 70-72, 
221 

Midwives, 226 

Minotti, Donna Sabba, 120 

Miracle of probity," "A, 66 

Miracolo !" ** Uno, 124 

Mocenigo, Alvise, (i), (Doge), 268- 

275 
Alvise, (2), 305 
,, Giovanni, (i), 182 

,, Giovanni, (2), (Doge), 220 

,, Giovanni, (3), 271 

, , Giovanni Alvise, (Doge), 

302-307 
., Paolina (Princess), 302 

,, Pietro, (Doge), 217-218 

,, Tommaso, (Doge), i8i- 

185 
Monasteries :— San Felice, 167. 
San Giobbe, 205. San Giorgio 
Maggiore, 78, 89, 91. Sant' Ilario, 
19, 38. San Nicolo di Lido, 71 
Morgencap, The, 34 
Mori, Three brothers, 73 
Moro, Cristoforo (Doge), 203-206, 
247 
,, Letizia, (Dogaressa), 316 
Morosini, Aliodea, (Dogaressa), 206 
,, Andrea, 283 
,, Antonio, 258 
,, Contarina, (Dogaressa), 

216, 217 
,, Domenigo, (i), 47 
,, Domenigo, (2), Doge, 68 
,, Francesco, (i), 216 
,, Francesco, (2), Doge, 296, 

297, 310 
„ Laura, (Dogaressa), 282 
,, Marco, (Doge), 100, loi 
,, Michele, (Doge), 161 
,, Morosina, (Dogaressa), 282- 

290 
,, Silvestro, 206 
,, Tommasina, (Dogaressa), 
117-120 
Mula, Giovanna da, (Dogaressa), 
249-251 
,, Polissena da, (Dogaressa), 307 
Murano, 16, 128, 129 

,, Gardens of, 210-214 

, , Glass- workers of, in England, 

251 
Music, Lore of, 106, 214 



Mutton ! A leg of, 191 



N 



Nani, Bartolommeo, 187 

,, Marina, (Dogaressa), 187-198 
Necklaces, Famous, 193, 279 
Nicolotti, The, 35, 77, 119, 168, 289 
Night-cap, A, 160 
Ninziolette — Mantillas, 46, 76, 80 
Nobles, out-of-elbows, 146, 147, 242 
Nogarola, Madonna Laura, 208, 209 
Nuns, Gay, 272. Wealthy, 301 



O 



Oderzo, 2. 

Orations, Funeral, 266, 269, 290. 

Dying, 184. 
Oriana, Queen of Dalmatia, 3 
Orseolo, Domenigo, (i), 43 
Domenigo, (2), 53 
,, Felicia, (Abbess), 54 

Giovanni, 50, 51 
,, Icella, (Princess), 54 
,, Imelda, 54 
,, Maria, Princess, 50, 51 
,, Orso, 53 

Pietro, I. , C' Grand " Doge), 
38, 43-45 
„ Pietro, II., (Doge), 43, 46- 

53 
Pietro, III., (Doge), 53, 54 
Pietro, IV., (Doge), 54 
,, Story of Abbot Romaldo 
and San Pietro, 44, 45. 
" Osella," The, 241, 287, 288, 297 



''Pace delle Donne," The, 237 

Padua, 2, 9, 13, 15, 20, 28, 36, 92, 
94, 128, 139, 126, 238 

Pageants, 52, 67, 74, 109, no, 132, 
156, 172, 175, 182, 187, 199, 261, 
287 

Painters : — Gentile Bellini, xxix, 
281. Giovanni Bellini, xxix, 234. 
Paris Bordone, 59, 127, 246. 
•' Canaletto," 292. Giovanni Con- 
tarini, 282. Giacomo del Fiore, 
138. " Giorgione,"xxix. Benozzo 
Gozzoli, 214. Francesco Guardi. 
292. Guariento, 138, 175. Pietro 
Longi, 292. Palma Vecchio, 127, 
254, 292. Giovanni Santacroce, 



329 



Index 



45. "Tintoretto," xxix, 290. 
Tiziano Vecellio, xxix, xxx, 246, 
249, 250. Lorenzo Veneziana, 
138. Paolo Veronese, xxix, 292. 
Vivarini Fratelli, 138 

Pala d'Oro, 43, 81 

Palaces : — Badoero, 16. Balbi, 190. 
Bembo,48. Contarini,i89,i90. Dan- 
dolo, 133. Diedo, 310. Ducal, 18, 
36, 43, 52, 59, 61, 109, III, 121, 127, 
132, 135, 175, 187, 190, 205, 218, 
288. Falier, 149. Foscari, 198, 
231, Giustiniani, 193. Grimani, 
242, 283, 285. Marcello, 269. 
Mocenigo, 310. Morosini, 283. 
Priuli, 254. Quattro Torri, 155. 
Soranzo, 129. Tiepolo, 109. Tron, 
207. Valier, 297. Venier, 164, 
277. Zeno, 104. Ziani, 91 

Pasquilago, Maria, (Dogaressa), 248 

Patroness of the Dogaressa, xxiii, 
xiv, 93 

Pattens, High, 179 

" Peace with Honour," 52, 54, 68 

Pegne, The, 24, 25 

Perfumes, Love of, xxvi, xxvii, 58, 62 

Pestilences, 140, 188, 222, 274 

Petrarch, Francesco, (Poet), 141, 143, 

155, 156 
,, Library, 156 
„ Prophecy of, 166 

"Pinzocchere,"The (Noble-mourners), 
69, 222 

Pisani, Cristina, (Writer), 214 
,, Elisabetta, (Dogaressa), 296 
,, Vettor, (Commander), 161 

Plato, School of, 15, 209 

Playing-cards, A famous pack of, 33, 
45> SO, 59, 90, 109, 186, 198, 200, 
204, 207, 270, 285. 

Poets: — Jacopo d'Albigotto, xxiv. 
Gianni Alfani, xxiv. Pietro Aretino, 
XXV, 214, 250. Lodovico Ariosto, 
xxvii, 214. Antonio Beccario, 115, 
Pietro Bembo, 21 1-2 13, 281, 282, 
Giovanni Boccaccio, 156, 281. 
Nicolo Coccio d'Arezzo, xxiv. 
Dante, 34, 89. Moderata Fonte, 
215. Guido da Firenze, xxiv. 
Homer, xxviii. Francesco de' 
Medici, 279. Andrea Navagero, 
214, 281. Francesco Petrarch, 
141, 143, 155, 156. Angello 
Poliziano, 215. San Gemignano, 
xxvii. Giovanni Sanguinacci, 116, 
274. Shakespeare, 39, 40, 290, 291, 
Percy B. Shelley, xiv. Giulio 
Strozzi, 3. Torquato Tasso, 
279 



Polani, Pietro, (Doge), 87 
Polo, Marco, 150 

Ponte, Arcangela da', (Dogaressa), 
278 
,, Nicolo da, (Doge), 278 
Popes : — Alexander HI., 72, 73, 77. 
Alexander VI. 231. Clement 
Vin.,289. Julius n., 235 
Porta, Story of Madonna Veneranda, 

Prata, Aloicia da, (Dogaressa), 102, 
105 

Prices-current, 78 

Printers, early, 200, 214 

Princesses : — Faustina Rezzonico, 
304, Gonzaga, 311. Maria Com- 
meno, 50, 51. Paolina Trivulzio, 
302. Teodora Ducas, xxx, 51, 55^ 

62,63,77,119- 

Priuli, Agnello, 254 
,, Andreana, (Dogaressa), 296 
,, Giovanni, 258, 265 
,, Girolamo, (Doge), 254, 267 
,, Lorenzo, (Doge), 253-266 
,, Maria, (Dogaressa), 186, 

187 
„ del Banco, Andrea, 186 
„ ,, Maria, (Dogar- 

essa), 186 

Profligates, 147 

" Promissioni." Dogal, 98, iii, 117, 
133. nS^ I59> 187, 204, 218, 235, 
240, 243, 256, 259, 286, 298, 303 



Queens : — Adriana of Padua, 3. 
Caterina of Sicily, 193, 280. 
Elisabeth of England ,299. Louise 
of France, 237. Oriana of Dal- 
matia, 3, 5. Of " Beauty," 59 
Querini, Andreaola, (Recluse), 131 
„ Elisabetta, (Dogaressa), 

297 
„ Marco, 120, 121, 129 
„ Nicolo, 129 



R 



Rape of the Brides, 30-31, 86 
Recipes : — Against plague, 140. 
When crossed in love, 40. For 
the hair, xxix, xxx. For the skin, 
59. For tender feet, xxii. For 
perfume, xxvii. 



330 



Inde: 



Regalia of Doges, 77, 199, 313 
Religious instincts, xvi, xxi, xxii, 

xxviii, 6, 19, 20, 29, 43, 80, 

125 
Renier, Paolo, (Doge), 30S-310 
Reverie, The Author's, 313-314 
Revolutions : — Marco Bocconio, 120, 

142, Marco Querino, 120, 121, 

142. Baiamente Tiepolo, 120, 

121, 142 
Rinieri, Sostinio, 4 
Ritual of Solemn Entry, 173, 174, 

199, 259, 288 
Rivo-Alto, or Rialto, xiv, xvi, xxviii, 

3. I5» 17, 57,84,87 
Roland the Invincible, 27 
Roll of the Dogaressas, 315-317 
Romaldo, (Abbot), 44 
Romance of a monk and a nun, 7 1, 

72 
Rosebud, Oftering of a, 27 
Rouge-pots, 137 
Ruzzini, Lucia, (Dogaressa), 227, 228 



Saffo, a Venetian, 273 
Saints " :— " The City of, xvi-xxiii, 
xxviii. Bodies of, xvii-xx, 2, 20, 
21, 45> 65, 66, 67, 108, 205. 
Venetian, 2, 20, 66, 82, 205. 
Voices of the, 6 
Sanudo. Angela, (Dogaressa), 315 
,, Cristina, (Dogaressa), 203- 

206 
,, Lionardo, 203 
,5 Martino, (Historian), II, 
144, 168, 204, 214, 227 
Sculptors : — Giovanni Bonazza, 
298. Girolamo Compagna, 290. 
Giuseppe Guoccoala, 298. 
Selvo, Domenigo, (Doge), 54-61, 89, 

119 
Seven Sisters, Story of the, 48, 

49 
Shop of Europe," "The, 106, 113 
Silk-purses, Dogaressas', 133, 134, 

259, 286 
Sior Rioba's Mouth ! 73 
Skin, Treatment of the, xxvi, xxvii 
Slaves, 35, 56, 99, 228-230, 245 
Sofia, The Houri, 68 
Sol ana, xxix 
Solemn Entry of Dogaressa, 109, 134, 

167, 170-175. 187, 220, 254, 284, 

297, 303 
Soranzo, Andrea, 231-233 



Soranzo, Elisabetta, (Dogaressa), 231 
,, Franchesina, (Dogaressa), 

128-132 
,, Giovanni, (Doge), 128-132 
,, Story of Soranza, 129- 

131 

Spectacle, An Unique, 225, 226 

Spectacular Plays, 237 

Sports : — Athletic, 36, 76. Bull- 
fights, 35, 178, 179. Grebe-shoot- 
ing, 12. Pugilistic, 119. Regattas, 
36, 119, 256, 272, 289. Tourna- 
ments, (Giosire), 182. Wild-duck 
shooting, 240-24 1 . Of many kinds, 
262 

State robes, 59, 117-118, 256, 286, 

297, 303 
Steno, Cristina, (a nun), 168 
,, Fantino, 168 
,, Giovanni, 168 
,, Michele, (Doge), 144, 145, 
167-181 
Stop the Bell ! 309 
Storlato, Maria, (Dogaressa), 97 
Stories : — Saint Giustina, xxii, xxiii 
,, Storks ol Altino, 7 
,, ^' La Bocco/a,' (Rosebud), 

26-28 
,, The Brides of Venice, 30- 

32 
,, Gerardo Guoro and Elena 

Candiano, 39-41 
,, S. Pietro Orseolo and 
Abbot Romaldo, 44- 

45 
,, Seven Spinsters, 48-49 
,, Anna Michielo and Nicolo 

Giustiniani, 71, 72 
,, Zorzio and Bella, 84-85 
,, A Venetian Bride, 95-96 
,, Giustina Rossi, 121-122 
,, '' La Bea^a," 122-124 
,, The Fisherman and the 

Ring, 126, 127 
,, Madonna Soranza Soranzo- 

Querino, 1 29-131 
, , Madonna Veneranda Porta, 

^53 
,, Alvise Venier's Burial, 164- 

165 
,, Doge Nicolo Tron and Fair 

Laura Nogarola, 208, 

209 
,, Loves of Henry IIL and 

Veronica Franco, 273, 

274 
Strozzi, Giulio, (Poet), 3 

,, Madonna Alessandra negli, 
229 



331 



Index 



Strozzi, Palla negli, i88 

Sumptuary laws, xxii, 136, 137, 218, 

219. 238, 239, 245 
Sun of Venice sets : 292 



Tancred of Provence. Story of, 26, 

27 
**TziiZ2. Delicatezza," 60 
•' Tanta Donna/" xxvi 
Tiepolo. Antonio, 279 

,, Baiamente. 120, 1 21 

,, Bartoldo, 97 

,. Giacomo. (i), (Doge), 96- 

ICXD, 109 
5, Giacomo, (2), loS, 116 
., Ginevra, "Daughter of 

Venice,'*'* 280 
,, Giovanni, 97 
,, Lorenzo, (i), 97 
,, Lorenzo, (2), (Doge) 97, 

105-112 
., Pietro, (i), 97 
,, Pietro, (2), 108 
Toilet : — Artifices of the, xxvi, xxvii, 
xxix, XXX, 16, 23, 58, 59, 230. 
Devotion to the, xxv. 
Tonde, Girls* veils, 46. 76, 80 
Torceilo. 2, 7, 62 
Torture, 195 
Toscana, Valrada da, (Dogaressa), 

34-39, 44, 47, 311 
Tradonico, Pieu-o, (Doge), 44 
Trappola," " La (C^rds), 293 
Tragedies : — Aluycia Grajidenigo- 
Falier. 149, 150 
„ Alvise Venier, 163- 

165 
,, Francesca Mocenigo, 

306 
„ Giacomo Foscari, 189- 

196 
„ Giorgio Ziani, 89 

;; Marino Falier, 148- 

149 
,, Soranza Soranzo-Que- 

rini, 129-131 
Treviso, 92, 93, 144 
Tribuno, Pietro, (Doge), 315 
Tron, Aloidea, (Dogaressa), 206-209, 
247 
,, Caterina, (Dogaressa), 31 1 
., Giacomo. 207 
,, Nicolo, (Doge), 206-209 
Trousseaux, 95. 137. 192, 193, 302, 
303 



U 



Ugo, Marquis of Tuscany, 34. 38 
Ungaria. Grimelda d' (Dogaressa), 

53 

Use of Cosmetiques, xxvi, xxvii 
,, of Paint and PufiF, xxvi, xxvii 



VeCELLIO, LavINIA, XXX 

., Tiziano. (see Painters) 
Vendramin, Andrea, (Doge), 219 

,, Benedetta, (Dogaressa), 

243-248 
Venetian Houses, 16, 58, 225 
,, Knights, 92-94, 300 

. , Lace, 85 

,, Love of music, drama, 

etc., 106, 119, 120, 
214 
,, Manners and dress. 107, 

224-226 
,, People shocked, 57 

„ Sayings, 12, 14, 39, 42, 

54, 56, 78> 84, 85, 100, 
103, 104. 106, 160, 
162, 183. 235, 251 
,, Vernacular, 214 

Veneto, Brides of. 8. Cities of, i. 
"Splendid," 2. ' Victims of, 3. 
Women of, 5 
Venezia, " Calva.*" 151. " Edificata," 
3. " Ricca," 176. "Seconda,"' 
6, 7, 9. 18 
" Venice wants for nothing : ' 54 
Venier. Agnese. (Dogaressa). 164- 
165 
,, Alvise. 163-165 
,. Andreaina, 254 
,, Antonia, (A nun). 164-165 
,, Antonio, (Doge). 162-165, 

182 
,, Domenigo, (Bishop), 233 
., Francesco, (i), (Doge), 254, 

277 
,, Francesco, (2), 307 
,, Orsola. 165 

,. Sebastiano, (Doge). 275-277 
Vcntolini — fans, xxxi, 33 
Vends : — " Calva," xiii, xiv, ?)i, 268, 
275, 292, 313. "City of." xiii, 
xxvii, 26. di Milo, 76. -'Of the 
century. -■'■ 207. " The firuitful," 
214 
Vicenza, 28, 36 



332 



NOV 1-1949 



Index 



Villas :— At Arbe, 88. 113. On the 
Brenta, 159. AtCordignano, 306. 
On the Giudecca, 210. At Murano, 
211 

Viragoes, 5, 35, 69, 97, 253 

Vulcana, black-eyed, Story of, 26, 27 



W 



Warning, A Dervish's, 159 
Witches, Seven spinster, 48, 49 
Wives : Of exiles, 131. Fascinating, 
247, 266, 285, 297. Ideal, 151. 
What sort of?, 246, 247. With 
sticks ! 289 
Woman :—" Beautiful and brittle," 
251. Commonwealth of, 6. 
Efi&gy, xxiv. "Of unsullied virtue," 
51. " A tolerable kind of !" 227. 
A valiant, 121, 122 
Women : — Beautiful, xxiv, xxv, 
xxxii, 2, 50, 51, 59, 84, 85, 268, 
272. Characteristics of, xxv, xxvi, 
xxvii, 5, 63. Courageous, 3, 4, 5, 
6. Cultured, 214, 215, 268. Dis- 
tressed gentle-, iii. Dress of, 12, 
23, 46, 59, 63. Emancipation of, 

152. Good breeding of, 12. Hostel 
for fallen, 153. "Never hang!" 

153. Of Chioggia, xxvii, 62. 
Occupations of, 21. "Of the 
Rialto," 56. Patriotism of, 64. 



"Of the People," 120. Toilet of, 
xxvi, xxvii, xxix, xxx, 16, 23, 58, 
59, 230. Treatment of, 22. 
VoJaptuous, 60. Weeping, 82, 8^ 



Y 



Young Dogs ! " ** Insolent, 144, 177, 

178 
Young men, Dress, 137. Hair, 205 ^ 



Agnese, 



(Dogaressa), 
61, 17S 



Zantani, 

120-126 
Zeno, Carlo, (Commander), 

,, Renier, (Doge), loi 
Ziani, Cecilia, (Dogaressa), 75-78 

,, Giorgio, 89 

,, Marchesina, 91 

,, Marco, 91 

,, Maria, 91 

,, Marino, 78 

,, Pietro, (Doge), 88-96 

,, Sebastiano, (Doge), 73-78, 117 
Zilve— Pattens, 179 
Zorzio, Agnese, (Dogaressa), 127, 128 

,, Giovanni, 218 

,, Laura, (Dogaressa), 218 

,, Marino, (Doge), 127, 128 

,, and Bella, Story of, 84, 85 



333 



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